Obama knew in advance of George Clooney’s bombshell call for Biden to drop out — but didn’t object
Former President Barack Obama was given a heads-up but didn’t object to Oscar-winning actor George Clooney’s bombshell call for President Biden to drop out of the 2024 race, a new report says.
The Hollywood A-lister had called Obama in advance to warn him he was going to make the call in an op-ed published in the New York Times on Wednesday, sources told Politico.
The ex-president didn’t encourage Clooney to make the remarks, but didn’t try to stop him, either, the sources added.
Let's break down Clooney's role in Biden's 2024 presidential campaign
- George Clooney has played a role in Democratic fundraising since Barack Obama’s 2012 run, including leading a benefit for former Vice President Joe Biden in 2020 and another in June 2024.
- Clooney, joined by actresses Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand, helped Biden take in a record $30 million-plus at a star-studded fundraising event in New York City just last month.
- Just weeks later, Clooney turned on Biden and published an op-ed in the New York Times calling for the 81-year-old to leave the race following his atrocious debate appearance.
- Clooney wrote that Biden “cannot win” in November, adding that the president is not the man he used to know, but rather “the same man we all witnessed at the debate.” The actor even said that “every senator and Congress member and governor that I’ve spoken with in private” agrees that Biden must step down.
- Donald Trump blasted Clooney for his comments, telling him to “get out of politics and go back to TV,” and said the actor had “turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are.”
- A report also revealed that Obama knew ahead of time what Clooney planned to write and did not object to the op-ed.
Clooney, who co-hosted a Biden fundraiser in Los Angeles that brought in some $30 million less than a month earlier, had declared in the piece that the Democratic incumbent “cannot win” following his train-wreck debate performance.
“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 said of the 81-year-old commander-in-chief.
“He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
Clooney, 63, and Obama, 62, who are friendly, both attended the fundraiser.
Obama’s team declined to comment about the claims that he didn’t push back on Clooney’s remarks.
Meanwhile, the 44th president was spotted Wednesday night smiling courtside at an exhibition basketball game in Las Vegas between Canada and the US, ahead of the Paris Olympic Games.
The bombshell report comes after Jon Favreau, one of Obama’s former advisers who was among those dubbed the “Obama bros” during his administration, echoed Clooney’s concerns, telling CNN that Biden’s debate performance “was not surprising to any of us who were at the fundraiser.”
“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.”
Clooney — a staunch Democrat — took a similar stance in his op-ed, bluntly declaring: “We are not going to win in November with this president.”
“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 “Syriana” star said.
So far, only eight House Democrats have publicly called for Biden to end his 2024 campaign, with others — including Obama — standing firmly behind the president or opting for a wait-and-see-approach.
“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,” Clooney added.
“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,” the actor continued.
“But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can.”
