George Clooney has been one of the most politically active movie stars in Hollywood for years now. He has testified before Congress, been arrested while protesting at the Sudanese embassy and penned a letter slamming Donald Trump. He's also a hardcore Hillary Clinton supporter (calling her the only "grown up" in the race for the White House).
Last week, though, he turned the heads of us normal poors when he hosted a California fundraiser dinner for Clinton with a shocking price tag: $353,400 per couple. The Bernie Sanders campaign, which has made the effort to get big money out of politics its number one policy issue, heard that number and went on the attack.
"I have a lot of respect for George Clooney. He's a great actor. I like him," Sanders commented during an appearance on CNN. "But this is the problem with American politics ... "It's a criticism of a corrupt campaign finance system, where big money interests -- and it's not Clooney, it's the people coming to this event -- have undue influence on the political process."
Days after pro-Bernie Sanders protesters showed up at that fundraiser dinner, Clooney, during an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press this morning, responded to Sanders' concerns. Host Chuck Todd asked him if charging that amount of money was "obscene."
"I think it's an obscene amount of money. ... We had some protesters there last night when we pulled up in San Francisco, and they're right to protest, " Clooney responded. "It's ridiculous that we should have this kind of money in politics. I agree completely."
Sanders, for his part, has said that the average donation to his campaign totals around $27. Actually, he's probably said it too much.
