George Clooney was all smiles at a recent fundraiser for Joe Biden in Hollywood, where he and Julia Roberts raised a record amount for the president’s reelection campaign.
Now, in a dramatic about-face, Clooney has withdrawn his support for Biden and revealed what happened behind the scenes, saying the president showed clear signs of cognitive decline at a celebrity-filled event last month.
in Editorial Wednesday The New York TimesGeorge Clooney says he no longer believes Joe Biden can win the presidential election in November and has called on Democrats to find an alternative candidate.
He also painted a dire picture of Biden’s intellectual capacity.
“It shocks me to say this, but the Joe Biden I sat with at a fundraiser three weeks ago was not the ‘big’ Joe Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debates,” Clooney wrote.
“Was I tired? Yes. Did I have a cold? Maybe. But our party leaders need to stop pretending that 51 million people didn’t see what we saw. We were all so frightened by the prospect of a second Trump term that we chose to ignore all the warning signs.”
Clooney continued.
“This is an age thing. Nothing more. But it can’t be overturned. We cannot win the election in November with this president. Not only that, we won’t win the House and we will lose the Senate. This is not just my opinion. It’s the opinion of every senator, congressman and governor I’ve spoken to privately. Every single one of them, regardless of what they say publicly.”
A widely circulated video from the Hollywood fundraiser showed Biden frozen awkwardly onstage and former President Barack Obama taking him by the arm and gently leading him away — one of many public gaffes for Biden that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed as “cheap fakery.”
This was at a George Clooney fundraiser last month, where President Obama had to pull Biden off the stage by the hand… pic.twitter.com/Q9OrqV8BjQ https://t.co/6zQ1lNBeWo
— ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) I was trying to tell you…🏾♂️ (@KingMike33) July 10, 2024
The Associated Press even “fact-checked” the moment, concluding that Biden had simply “paused” onstage. The AP quoted White House press secretary Andrew Bates, who described the moment as “the president looked out at the applauding crowd for several seconds.”
Clooney called on congressional leaders, including Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi, to ask Biden to “voluntarily step down.”
“Will there be chaos? Yes, democracy is chaos. But will it energize the party and awaken voters who were already disengaged long before the June debates? Yes, it will,” he wrote.
Courtesy of CNN Presidential Debate
Among the names Clooney mentioned as possible candidates to replace Biden are Wes Moore, Kamala Harris, Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, Andy Beshear and JB Pritzker.
Clooney’s Hollywood fundraiser brought in more than $30 million for the Biden campaign.
Actor George Clooney (L) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) speak at a press conference in Washington, D.C., where Clooney spoke about his recent visit to the Darfur region of Sudan on April 27, 2006. (Christy Bowe/Imagecatcher News Service/Corbis via Getty Images)
George Clooney is among a number of entertainment industry leaders and fundraisers calling on Biden to drop out of the race.
Others include Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and veteran studio boss Barry Diller. lost creator Damon Lindelof. On Sunday, Rob Reiner, one of Hollywood’s staunchest Biden supporters, called on the president to “step down.”
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