“President Biden has shown what true leadership is. He’s saving democracy once again. We’re all so excited to do whatever we can to support vice-president Harris in her historic quest,” Clooney said in a statement to CNN.

A major fundraiser for Democratic candidates and long-time Biden booster, Clooney broke ranks two weeks ago by openly calling on the 81-year-old president to give way to a younger candidate so that the party would have a better chance of beating Donald Trump in November.

“I love Joe Biden,” Clooney wrote in The New York Times, shocking many.

“I consider him a friend, and I believe in him … But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time.”

With Biden at the top of the ticket, the Oscar-winner said, Democrats “are not going to win in November”, will lose control of the Senate, and won’t gain a majority in the House of Representatives.

After days of mounting pressure, Biden on Sunday abruptly announced he was leaving the race and endorsed his vice-president.

Harris has rapidly garnered overwhelming support from party leaders and raked in a huge quantity of donations from voters.