NEWSBarack Obama Given a Heads-Up About George Clooney's Call for Joe Biden to Step Down — But He Didn't Object
July 11 2024, Published 11:15 a.m. ET
Barack Obama was in the loop about George Clooney's recent op-ed in which he called President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race — and he apparently "didn't object to it," a new report from Politico claims.
Obama's team has yet to comment on the report.
The actor, 63, recently co-hosted a Biden fundraiser in Los Angeles, but he said Biden, 81, has changed over the years and it wouldn't be in the country's best interest to keep him in his current role.
George Clooney recently called for Joe Biden to step down.
“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.”
“We are not going to win in November with this president," the Hollywood star declared. “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. The dam has broken. We can put our heads in the sand and pray for a miracle in November, or we can speak the truth. 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. None of us can.”
Barack Obama was apparently aware of George Clooney's op-ed.
Jon Favreau, one of Obama’s former advisers, also shared similar sentiments, explaining to CNN that Biden's disastrous debate performance “was not surprising to any of us who were at the fundraiser.”
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Barack Obama hasn't commented on the claims.
“I was there,” Favreau said. “Clooney was exactly right, and every single person I talked to at the fundraiser thought the same thing, except for the people working for Joe Biden, or at least they didn’t say that.”
“I remember my wife, Emily, turned to me after the fundraiser and said, ‘What are we going to do?’ And I said, ‘Well, there is a debate in a week. Either he’ll do well in the debate, and we’ll think he was just tired because he flew all the way back from Europe, and that’ll be that, or he’ll be like this at the debate and then the whole country will be talking about it.’ So, here we are," he continued.
George Clooney said after going to a fundraiser, Joe Biden appeared to be a different person.
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Despite people wanting Biden to step down, it doesn't seem like that is happening anytime soon.
“Of course he’s not dropping out,” Biden campaign spokesperson Seth Schuster said, The Hill reported on Friday, June 28, just one day after the debate against former President Donald Trump, 78.
