Actor George Clooney, one of the Democratic Party’s leading fundraisers, made an emotional and heartfelt appeal Wednesday to President Joe Biden to end his faltering re-election campaign.
Clooney — a member of the Hollywood elite who provides crucial support to Democrats — joins a growing list of public figures who have called on the 81-year-old Biden to step down following his poor performance in a debate against Donald Trump last month.
“I love Joe Biden. I consider him a friend and I trust him … but one battle he can’t win is the battle against time,” Clooney wrote in the New York Times.
Clooney, a self-described “lifelong Democrat,” just last month hosted a fundraiser with Biden in Los Angeles that was also attended by former President Barack Obama.
The Biden campaign said the event raised a record $28 million.
“It’s sad to say this, but the Joe Biden I was with at a fundraiser three weeks ago is not the Joe ‘Big F—ing Deal’ Biden of 2010,” Clooney wrote, referencing a famous hot-mic clip from Biden’s vice presidential years.
Clooney added, “He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same guy we all saw in the debates” — a direct challenge to Biden’s claim that his poor debate performance was a one-time thing.
Clooney said “the dam has burst” with Democratic lawmakers publicly calling for Biden to withdraw, and called on more lawmakers to come forward.
“Top Democrats — Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi — and the senators, representatives and other candidates who face defeat in November must call on this president to step down voluntarily.”
The Oscar winner dismissed concerns that Biden’s departure would cause chaos four months before an election in which Democrats are hoping to keep Trump from power, and he did not endorse any replacement candidate.
He wrote that the party should listen to Vice President Kamala Harris, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and other contenders, “then we can go to the Democratic Convention next month and figure it out.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
