George Clooney on Wednesday called on President Biden to withdraw from the 2024 presidential election race, urging Democrats to choose a new candidate. The Oscar-winning actor’s defection comes amid a wave of protests from prominent Democrats calling for 81-year-old Joe Biden to step aside after his lackluster and confused performance in the June 27 presidential debate, with Donald Trump, 78 years old. It has long been argued that Biden is mentally unfit to lead the country.
Clooney’s criticism is especially important because he is one of Biden’s biggest and most famous Hollywood supporters – an important base of support for the president who now appears to be on the mend. “I love Joe Biden. As a senator. As vice president and as president,” Clooney writes in a article opinion with New York Times. “I think he’s a friend and I believe in him,” he continues. “But the only battle he can’t win is the fight against time,” he says. “It’s devastating to say, but Joe was not the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser”big F-ing deal‘Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same guy we all saw at the debate.”
Questioned by The Washington Post, Simon Halls, Clooney’s representative, declined to comment for this article, in which Clooney also says that Democrats are so focused on defeating Trump in the upcoming election that they “chose to ignore all the warning signs” about age the president. The actor also says that Biden’s performance in the debate, as well as his ABC interview with George Stephanopoulos, raised concerns that Democrats would not control the White House, the Senate or the House of Representatives next year.
“It’s all about age. Nothing more,” Clooney wrote. “But also anything that can be reversed. We are not going to win in November with the president.”
Although Clooney did not name a specific person to replace Biden, he indicated that Vice President Kamala Harris and several Democratic governors (such as Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Gavin Newsom of California) were potential candidates.
Clooney’s criticism was not entirely unexpected. In May, the actor asked one of Biden’s top advisers to complain about Biden’s denial of International Criminal Court action against Israeli leaders. Clooney’s wife, Amal Clooney, worked on the case. The phone call caused some Biden officials to fear that Clooney would not be present at a fundraising party attended by former President Barack Obama, TV host Jimmy Kimmel and actress Julia Roberts. saccording to Associated Press, the event, in which Kimmel interviewed Biden and Obama, will raise more than 30 million dollars.
Since the presidential debate against Trump last month, a Biden has steadfastly rebuffed calls from Washington’s “wings” for him to drop out of the presidential race, but the outpouring of celebrities who have heavily supported his fundraising efforts is adding to the public and financial pressure — and it could be growing.
Regarding Clooney’s opinion piece, actor Michael Douglas, 79 years old, said on the program The Scene which considers that “It’s a valid point.” Although he did not ask the president to release the chain, he declared: “I am very concerned.” Douglas added that the “difficulty of debating” Biden could easily have been avoided. “First of all, they should have told the president to get up, put on a little makeup, (…) and then where to look,” he said. “And don’t deal with all the facts; just make do with the lies [de Trump].”
Actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner supported Clooney’s opinion piece in a post shared on social network X, formerly known as Twitter. “My friend George Clooney made it clear what many of us have been saying. We love and respect Joe Biden,” he wrote. “We recognize everything he has done for our country. But there is an existential threat facing democracy. We need a younger person to fight back. Joe Biden must step aside.”
My friend George Clooney expressed clearly what many of us have been saying. We love and respect Joe Biden. We acknowledge all that he did for our country. But Democracy faces an existential threat. We need someone younger to fight back. Joe Biden must step aside.…
— Rob Reiner (@robreiner) July 10, 2024
Among the Hollywood actors who lost confidence in Joe Biden are a host of Late Show CBS’s Stephen Colbert; Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings; director Michael Moore; actor John Cusack and author Stephen King. “Joe Biden was an excellent president, but the time has come for him – for the sake of the America he loves – to announce that he will not run for re-election,” the writer published in X.
Joe Biden has been a fine president, but it is time for him – for the sake of the Americans he so clearly loves – to announce that he will not be running for re-election.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) July 8, 2024
Exclusive PUBLIC/The Washington Post
Translation: Barbara Wong