Hollywood star George Clooney called on President Joe Biden to step aside from the presidential race, weeks after he hosted a fundraiser for the president’s campaign.
Writing an opinion piece for the New York Times on Wednesday, Clooney said the Biden people saw during the president’s disastrous debate less than two weeks ago was the “same man” he saw at the high-profile fundraiser last month. The fundraiser in Los Angeles also featured Julia Roberts, Barbra Streisand, Jack Black, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Jason Bateman, and Kathryn Hahn and raised $28 million, according to the campaign.
“In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced,” Clooney wrote. “But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can. It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
Biden has vowed to continue his candidacy and claimed only the “elites” in his party want him out, while speaking Monday on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
“I’m getting so frustrated by the elites — now I’m not talking about you guys — the elites in the party, ‘Oh, they know so much more,’” Biden said. “Any of these guys that don’t think I should run, run against me. Announce for president, challenge me at the convention.”
Clooney, considered one of the Hollywood elites, said Biden’s interview with ABC News last Friday “only reinforced what we saw the week before” and admitted that “as Democrats,” Clooney and others hold their breath whenever he is walking off of Air Force One or going back to answer an unscripted question. The actor also claimed that every Democratic politician he has spoken with in private is concerned Biden could cost them the House and the Senate, along with the White House.
“Is it fair to point these things out?” Clooney wrote. “It has to be. This is about age. Nothing more. But also nothing that can be reversed. We are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate.
“This isn’t only my opinion; this is the opinion of every senator and congress member and governor that I’ve spoken with in private,” he added. “Every single one, irrespective of what he or she is saying publicly.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Wednesday that discussion on whether Biden should step aside should be delayed until after the NATO summit. She did not give a clear answer on if he should do so, only “encouraging him to make” a decision on whether to run. The president has been adamant that he will run against Trump in November.
Most Democratic officials have been publicly mum on the down-ballot prospects, but Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) said Tuesday that Trump “is on track” to win the White House and both chambers of Congress, adding during his CNN appearance that it could be a landslide.
Clooney called on Democratic leadership to call on Biden to step aside and said Democrats should hear from the likes of Vice President Kamala Harris and Govs. Wes Moore (D-MD), Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI), Gavin Newsom (D-CA), Andy Beshear (D-KY), and J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) prior to the August Democratic National Convention.
“Would it be messy?” Clooney wrote. “Yes. Democracy is messy. But would it enliven our party and wake up voters who, long before the June debate, had already checked out? It sure would. The short ramp to Election Day would be a benefit for us, not a danger. It would give us the chance to showcase the future without so much opposition research and negative campaigning that comes with these ridiculously long and expensive election seasons.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
He also called Biden a hero and claimed he saved democracy in 2020, saying the president should “do it again in 2024” by stepping aside.
Clooney is one of the biggest names to defect from supporting Biden’s campaign, as Democrats in Washington continue to deliberate on how to move forward toward November.
