George Clooney says Trump family belongs in 'dustbin of history' after Capitol attack

Actor George Clooney has slammed President Donald Trump and his family after supporters of the president stormed the Capitol, leading to five deaths. In a preview of a podcast with KCRW, Clooney said that the entire Trump family belongs in the “dustbin of history.”

"It's devastating to watch the People's House being desecrated in that way,” he told podcast host Kim Masters. “But it is also a tremendous overreach in a way that everybody kept waiting for...what’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back? And it just seemed like that line kept getting moved and moved and moved and outrage just didn’t even matter anymore.”

“Even to the point of calling the Secretary of State in Georgia and pressuring him,” said Clooney. “None of that seemed to matter. This mattered. This puts Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka, all of them, into the dustbin of history. That name will now forever be associated with insurrection."

Clooney has previously been critical of Trump, condemning him for initially refusing to wear a face-covering in an interview with The New York Times.

 "The idea that we politicize things like this is crazy," he said. "Had Trump come out at the very beginning and said, “We’re all going to wear masks because it’s the right thing to do and it’s going to save a lot of lives,” the whole country would have gotten behind him and he would have been re-elected. But he thought it would affect his economy, so he chose to say it didn’t exist. And now we’re going to have 350,000 people dead."

Clooney was also critical of other Republicans, suggesting that President-elect Joe Biden may find it hard to negotiate with certain members of the House.

"The world is different now." Clooney said. "I mean, Ted Cruz, think about what a yutz this guy is! I don’t care what your political view is: If a guy said that my wife was ugly and my father killed Kennedy, there is no way in the world you could have me come out and say, 'I’ll defend you.'" 

"Every single one of these guys have aspirations for bigger things — Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Mike Pence, all of them. They think people will travel with them because, “I’ve stuck with you, Don,” but the truth is, they won’t. They stay with Donald because Donald, for all of his immense problems as a human being, is a charismatic carnival barker."