Former President Barack Obama knew of Academy Award winner George Clooney‘s bombshell call for President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 race in advance but didn’t object, sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed to Politico on Wednesday (July 10).
Clooney, 63, who has backed both Democratic presidents, which included co-hosting a fundraiser for Biden in Los Angeles less than a month prior, reportedly called Obama, 62, in advance to warn him about his op-ed published by the New York Times on Wednesday, who didn’t encourage nor attempt to stop the actor, sources added. Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president for two terms, is just weeks removed from a disastrous performance in the first presidential debate.
“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010,” Clooney wrote in the New York Times op-ed. “He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
Clooney’s op-ed came amid reports of uncertainty regarding the president’s re-election campaign as a top campaign official reportedly told at least one megadonor that Biden’s withdrawal from the 2024 election is “only a matter of time” privately according to TMZ, as well as multiple Democratic officials publicly calling for him to drop out. The official reportedly said that focus had shifted from singular support of the president’s re-election to “Democrats have to retain The White House” following Biden’s disastrous performance in the first presidential debate against former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
Biden, the oldest president in history, appeared opposite Trump, on the debate stage for the first time since the 2020 election and did little to quell concerns about his vigor and energy. The president appeared to struggle with his voice, clearing his throat and coughing multiple times, and was often seen open-mouthed and staring when Trump spoke, occasionally struggling to finish sentences.
Biden’s performance reportedly led to “panic” among Democrats, according to longtime Democratic operative and CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod.
“He seemed a little disoriented. He did get stronger as the debate went on. But by that time, I think the panic had set in,” Axelrod said, adding that “there are going to be discussions about whether he should continue.”
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