George Clooney calls on Biden to drop out of presidential race weeks after co-hosting fundraiser: ‘He cannot win’
Oscar-winning actor George Clooney called on President Biden to end his campaign for re-election Wednesday, saying the 81-year-old incumbent “cannot win.”
Clooney, 63, made the call for a new candidate in an op-ed published in The New York Times less than a month after he co-hosted a Biden fundraiser that raised some $30 million.
However, the receipts were overshadowed by Biden freezing up during the event and having to be escorted offstage by former President Barack Obama.
The president and his former boss sat for an interview with ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and as the men rose afterward, Biden’s gaze appeared fixed on the applauding crowd for a full 10 seconds until Obama took his wrist and guided him offstage.
The “Syriana” star added that “I love Joe Biden. As a senator. As a vice president and as president. I consider him a friend, and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals.”
“But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time,” Clooney went on. “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 added. “He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
The staunch Democrat also called out party leaders on Capitol Hill, who Clooney said “need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw” at the CNN debate June 27.
“We are not going to win in November with this president,” the actor bluntly said.
“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. Every single one, irrespective of what he or she is saying publicly.”
So far, only eight House Democrats have publicly called for Biden to end his 2024 campaign, with others taking a wait-and-see-approach or standing firmly behind the president.
However, Clooney insisted Wednesday that “[t]he dam has broken. We can put our heads in the sand and pray for a miracle in November, or we can speak the truth.
“It is disingenuous, at best, to argue that Democrats have already spoken with their vote and therefore the nomination is settled and done, when we just received new and upsetting information,” the actor added in a clear response to Biden’s defiant Monday morning letter to Democrats insisting he would stay in the race.
“Top Democrats — Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi — and senators, representatives and other candidates who face losing in November need to ask this president to voluntarily step aside,” Clooney insisted.
As for the mechanism to replace Biden, Clooney endorsed a so-called “mini-primary” that would be settled at next month’s Democratic convention in Chicago.
“Let’s hear from [Maryland Gov.] Wes Moore and [Vice President] Kamala Harris and [Michigan Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer and [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom and [Kentucky Gov.] Andy Beshear and [Illinois Gov.] J.B. Pritzker and others,” he wrote. “Would it be messy? Yes. Democracy is messy.”
The Times reported Wednesday that the Biden campaign had found out about Clooney’s op-ed before it was published and tried to persuade him to change his mind.
According to the outlet, Biden campaign co-chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg — the former head of Disney and DreamWorks — led the unsuccessful effort.
Clooney is not the only Hollywood bundler taking issue with Biden’s insistence on staying in the race.
Let's break down Clooney's role in Biden's 2024 presidential campaign
- George Clooney has played a role in Democratic fundraising since Barack Obama’s 2012 run, including leading a benefit for former Vice President Joe Biden in 2020 and another in June 2024.
- Clooney, joined by actresses Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand, helped Biden take in a record $30 million-plus at a star-studded fundraising event in New York City just last month.
- Just weeks later, Clooney turned on Biden and published an op-ed in the New York Times calling for the 81-year-old to leave the race following his atrocious debate appearance.
- Clooney wrote that Biden “cannot win” in November, adding that the president is not the man he used to know, but rather “the same man we all witnessed at the debate.” The actor even said that “every senator and Congress member and governor that I’ve spoken with in private” agrees that Biden must step down.
- Donald Trump blasted Clooney for his comments, telling him to “get out of politics and go back to TV,” and said the actor had “turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are.”
- A report also revealed that Obama knew ahead of time what Clooney planned to write and did not object to the op-ed.
Actor and director Rob Reiner joined Clooney’s disavowal of Biden later Wednesday, writing on X: “My friend George Clooney has clearly expressed what many of us have been saying. We love and respect Joe Biden. We acknowledge all he has done for our country. But Democracy is facing an existential threat. We need someone younger to fight back.
“Joe Biden must step aside.”
Last week, Abigail Disney, the grand-niece of studio patriarch Walt Disney, told CNBC she would not give any more to Democrats as long as Biden remained on the ticket.
“This is realism, not disrespect. Biden is a good man and has served his country admirably, but the stakes are far too high,” Disney, 64, said at the time.
“If Biden does not step down, the Democrats will lose. Of that I am absolutely certain. The consequences for the loss will be genuinely dire.”
The president’s re-election campaign has said it raised $127 million last month, up from the $85 million it pulled in this past May.
However, NBC News reported Wednesday that the Biden campaign was already seeing the effects of donors keeping their wallets shut in the wake of the debate, with one source telling the outlet that the money flow has “absolutely shut off” and another calling the situation “disastrous.”
Meanwhile, at least one fundraiser scheduled during next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago has been canceled due to worries about the president’s political future, CNN reported Wednesday.
A DNC rep told The Post that they had no affiliation with the canceled event.
