Hollywood A-lister and major Democratic donor George Clooney has called for U.S. President Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race, claiming he cannot win against Republican Donald Trump.
In a scathing op-ed published in The New York Times on Wednesday, Clooney said the 81-year-old president is too old to run for re-election.
Despite calling himself a “lifelong Democrat,” Clooney said Biden is no longer the fierce leader he was during previous elections or earlier in his career as a senator.
Clooney, 63, said current Democratic senators, congress members and governors have told him in private conversations that they are concerned about Biden, regardless of what they are saying publicly.
Clooney is a high-profile donor and supporter of the American Democratic Party. In the past, he has hosted massive fundraising events for several nominees, including for Biden during the 2020 election.
In June, Clooney hosted the single largest fundraiser supporting any Democratic candidate in history, which advocated for Biden’s re-election.
Now, Clooney has changed his mind.
His call for Biden to step down as Democratic nominee comes after Biden’s poor performance at a June debate against Trump.
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Though Biden’s performance sparked concern — and in some cases, outrage — among Democratic supporters, the president this month vowed to stay in the race.
Still, some of those in his own party have refused to outright endorse Biden for re-election, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who on Wednesday said advisors are waiting for the president to officially decide whether or not to stay in the race.
“Was he tired? Yes. A cold? Maybe,” Clooney said of Biden’s fumbling debate performance and the president’s subsequent reasoning for it. “But our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw.”
Among his criticism, the actor made sure to praise Biden’s political accomplishments.
“I love Joe Biden,” Clooney wrote. “As a senator. As a vice president and as president. I consider him a friend, and I believe in him. Believe in his morals. In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced.”
Clooney said the one battle Biden cannot win, however, “is the fight against time.”
“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,” Clooney lamented. “He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
Clooney said his concerns over Biden are about his age, and “nothing more.”
With Biden as nominee, Clooney predicted a Republican president and Democratic losses in both the House and the Senate.
He encouraged members of the Democratic Party to hear from other party members who could potentially be put on the ballot, namely Wes Moore, Kamala Harris and Gretchen Whitmer, as well as others.
“Joe Biden is a hero; he saved democracy in 2020,” Clooney concluded. “We need him to do it again in 2024.”
Though Clooney is the highest-profile person to publicly insist Biden end his campaign, he is not the only one. Already, major Democratic donors Abigail Disney and Stewart Bainum Jr., as well as New York Democrat Pat Ryan and New Jersey Democrat Mikie Sherrill among others, have called for Biden to drop out of the race.
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