NEW YORK: Actor George Clooney, one of the Democratic Party’s leading fundraisers, on Wednesday made an emotional and heartfelt plea for President Joe Biden to end his faltering reelection campaign.
Clooney - a member of the Hollywood elite that provides key support to the Democrats - joined a growing list of public figures calling for Biden, 81, to step aside after his terrible debate performance against Donald Trump last month.
Democrat, Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey, called on Biden to step aside Tuesday afternoon, underscoring persistent worries about Biden and questions about whether he should make way for Vice-President Kamala Harris or another candidate
“I love Joe Biden,” Clooney wrote in the New York Times. “I consider him a friend, and I believe in him... But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time,” Clooney wrote.
A self-described “lifelong Democrat,” Clooney co-hosted a star-studded fundraiser with Biden in Los Angeles only last month featuring former president Barack Obama.
The Biden campaign said that the event brought in a record $28 million.
At the fundraiser in Los Angeles co-hosted by Clooney and fellow movie star Julia Roberts, Biden appeared tired as he took to the stage alongside former president Barack Obama.
He had flown straight to California from the G7 summit in Italy and has since blamed jetlag, and a cold, for his disastrous performance in a June 27 television debate with Donald Trump.
Biden’s bid for a second term in the White House has been under severe pressure since the debate, in which he slurred his words and stood with mouth agape while Trump talked.
While top Democrats broadly but unenthusiastically backed him on Tuesday, Biden’s efforts to turn the page took a leap backwards with the interventions of Pelosi and Clooney.
It’s devastating to say it...
Former House speaker Pelosi, 86, said time was running out for Biden to decide whether to end his candidacy, ignoring Biden’s repeated insistence that he is committed to run.
“It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run,” she told MSNBC.
“We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because the time is running short.”
Pelosi said Biden should however delay any final decision until after Nato’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington, which the US president is hosting this week.
“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe Biden of 2010,” Clooney wrote, referencing a famous hot-mic clip from Biden’s vice presidency.
“He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate,” Clooney said - a direct challenge to Biden’s claim that his poor debate showing was a one-off.
“The dam has broken” on Democratic lawmakers publicly calling for Biden to withdraw, Clooney said, asking more come forward.
“Top Democrats — Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi — and senators, representatives and other candidates who face losing in November need to ask this president to voluntarily step aside.”
'We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term'
“I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced. But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can. It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate," Clooney wrote.
“Was he tired? Yes. A cold? Maybe. But our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw. We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign. The George Stephanopoulos interview only reinforced what we saw the week before. As Democrats, we collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume whenever we see the president, who we respect, walk off Air Force One or walk back to a mic to answer an unscripted question,” he wrote in the Times.
“I’m a lifelong Democrat; I make no apologies for that. I’m proud of what my party represents and what it stands for. As part of my participation in the democratic process and in support of my chosen candidate, I have led some of the biggest fund-raisers in my party’s history. Barack Obama in 2012. Hillary Clinton in 2016. Joe Biden in 2020. Last month I co-hosted the single largest fund-raiser supporting any Democratic candidate ever, for President Biden’s re-election. I say all of this only to express how much I believe in this process and how profound I think this moment is,” he wrote.
The Oscar-winner brushed aside worries that Biden’s exit would create chaos four months before an election in which the Democrats hope to keep Trump from power, and did not endorse a replacement candidate.
The party should hear from contenders such as Vice President Kamala Harris, Maryland Governor Wes Moore and others, “then we could go into the Democratic convention next month and figure it out,” he wrote.
