George Clooney, a lifelong Democrat and prominent donor to Joe Biden, joined a growing chorus of calls in a New York Times op-ed on Wednesday for Biden to step aside and field another candidate in this year’s presidential election.
“The only battle he can’t win is the battle against time,” Clooney said. “Nobody wins that. And it’s heartbreaking to say this, but the Joe Biden I was sitting with at a fundraiser three weeks ago was not the ‘big’ Joe Biden of 2010. It’s not even the Joe Biden of 2020. It was the same guy we all witnessed in the debates.”
“We’re not going to win the election in November with this president,” the actor continued. “Not only that, we’re not going to win the House, we’re going to lose the Senate.”
Clooney said he is among the senators, representatives and governors he has spoken to privately since the debate who hold this belief. “It’s everyone, regardless of what they say publicly,” he said.
Clooney cited strong concerns about Biden’s age and compared his experiences with the president at other fundraisers over the past few years.
“Is it fair to point these things out?” he continued. “It has to be. It’s an age thing. Nothing more. But it’s not something that can be undone.”
Clooney most recently attended a Biden-Harris fundraiser, appearing in a small-dollar voter contest to win a chance to meet Clooney and others at the fundraiser. The event raised millions of dollars for the Biden reelection campaign, making it the most successful fundraiser in Democratic Party history.
Now, Clooney has called on Biden to drop out of the race in light of the president’s behavior that night, his performance at the debate and the interviews that followed.
“Seniors like Chuck Schumer, Akeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi, and other Senators, Representatives and candidates who stand to lose in November should call on the president to voluntarily step aside,” Clooney said.
The actor noted that prominent Democratic figures, including Vice President Kamala Harris and Governors Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom, will likely come forward to campaign for the nomination.
“Will it be disruptive? Yes, democracy is disruptive,” Clooney continued. “But will it energize the party and awaken voters who were already disengaged long before the June debate? Absolutely.”
“Joe Biden is a hero. He saved our democracy in 2020. I want him to do the same in 2024,” he concluded.
