Hollywood actor George Clooney, one of the Democratic Party’s biggest fundraisers, has called on Joe Biden to step down to protect democracy from Donald Trump.
Clooney, in a New York Times op-ed, declared his deep affection for the U.S. president but said his personal interaction with the president at the recent largest Democratic fundraiser in history in Los Angeles (raising more than $30 million) suggested his stumble at last month’s debate in Atlanta was no exception.
“It saddens me to say this, but the Joe Biden I was with at a fundraiser three weeks ago was not the ‘big’ Joe Biden of 2010.” He is an actor, longtime Democrat and fundraiser..
“He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same person we all witnessed at the debates.”
“Was I tired? Yes. Did I have a cold? Maybe. But our party leaders need to stop saying 51 million people didn’t see what we saw,” he said, referring to explanations from the White House and Biden himself for his poor performance in the debate.
More bluntly, he said Biden could not win reelection against Trump: “You can’t win with this president.”
Clooney stressed that the decision was reluctant and paid tribute to the political battles Biden has won throughout his career, but said his age was an insurmountable enemy.
“But the only battle he cannot win is the battle against time. None of us can win that,” he wrote.
Clooney’s plea comes as Biden continues to insist he will continue in the election, while Democratic leaders struggle with how to pressure him to change his mind and serious questions remain about his health and chances of reelection.
The actor called on key party figures to abandon neutrality and support Biden, while dismissing as “disingenuous” the president’s claim in a letter to Democratic lawmakers this week that party members had already chosen a candidate in the primary.
“Most members of Congress have chosen to wait and see if the dam breaks,” he said in comments clearly criticizing continued inaction, “But the dam did break. We can stick our heads in the sand and pray for a miracle in November, or we can tell the truth.”
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He concluded: “Joe Biden is a hero. He saved our democracy in 2020. I want him to do the same in 2024.”
Clooney’s intervention comes weeks after he clashed with the White House over Biden’s criticism of the International Criminal Court’s move to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on charges of war crimes in Gaza.
The case was handled by the actor’s wife, Amal Alamuddin Clooney, who called presidential adviser Steve Ricchetti to complain about Biden calling the warrant “outrageous.”
Arrest warrants were sought for Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant and three leaders of Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
But soon after, Clooney appeared at a major campaign fundraiser in Los Angeles, fronting Biden and Barack Obama.
