Image source, Getty Images
- author, Brandon Drennon and Bernd Debsmann at the NATO summit
- role, BBC News, Washington
-
George Clooney has sternly demanded that Joe Biden withdraw from the US presidential race, hours after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi dodged a question about whether Biden should continue to run for president.
The Hollywood actor and prominent Democratic fundraiser said the president has won many battles in his career, but “the one battle he can’t win is against time.”
His comments came after Pelosi, a former House speaker, added to growing anxiety within the party that “time is running out” for Biden, 81, to decide whether to continue in the campaign after his stumble in a debate with Donald Trump.
The president has repeatedly said he is determined to remain the Democratic nominee and defeat the 78-year-old Trump in November.
“It’s heartbreaking to say that,” Clooney wrote in The New York Times, but the Joe Biden he met at a fundraiser three weeks ago was not the Biden of 2010. “He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020,” the actor added.
“He was the same guy we saw at the debates,” Clooney said.
The fundraiser in Los Angeles, co-hosted by Clooney and featuring Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand, raised a record $30 million (£23 million) for the Biden campaign in one night.
The Biden campaign hit back at the Hollywood star, with an anonymous source telling US media: “The president was there for more than three hours. [at the fundraiser]Clooney took a quick photo and then left.”
The president’s campaign also noted that Trump had just arrived in Los Angeles from Italy, where he was attending the G7 summit, when he attended the fundraiser.
“Our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we saw,” Clooney said in the op-ed.
“This is about age, nothing more,” he continued. “We can’t win in November with this president.”
Clooney added that his concerns echo those of “every” lawmaker he has spoken to.
Asked to respond, Biden’s campaign pointed to a letter the president sent to Democratic lawmakers and said Biden is “firmly committed” to running for president and defeating Trump.
But Biden faces intense scrutiny as he hosts a NATO summit in Washington, and public opposition continues to grow within his own party.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who wields great influence among congressional Democrats, appeared to ignore Biden’s assertions on Wednesday that he was determined to move forward.
Asked whether Trump should continue to campaign, she told MSNBC’s Morning Joe: “I want him to do whatever he decides to do.”
“It’s up to the president to decide whether he wants to run or not. Time is running out and we’re all urging him to make the decision to run.”
Pelosi acknowledged the president’s request during the NATO summit, telling MSNBC: “I told everybody, ‘Let’s just wait.'”
“Tell somebody privately what you’re thinking, but you don’t need to bring it out into the open until we see how this week plays out. But I’m very proud of the president.”
Since the June 27 debate with Trump, more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers have urged him to halt his campaigning.
On Tuesday night, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado became the first Democratic senator to publicly voice his opposition.
He did not call for Biden to resign, but said Trump would probably win the election in a “landslide victory.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Vermont Sen. Peter Welch became the first Senate Democrat to publicly call on Biden to withdraw “in the national interest” in a Washington Post op-ed.
Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal told reporters he was “deeply concerned” about whether Biden could win the election.
“For the sake of our country and for the sake of my two young children, I ask Joe Biden to resign,” New York Rep. Pat Ryan told The New York Times on the same day.
The Biden campaign echoed the president’s comments that “we will fight this election to the end.”
Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries plans to meet with Biden by Friday to discuss concerns raised by lawmakers from across the party.
However, overall support from elected Democrats remains solid.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, whom Clooney has named as a possible successor, said he still offered his “full cooperation” with Biden.
The Congressional Black Caucus, a group of about 60 politicians, and progressive House members such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have publicly endorsed Biden.
“I’m with Joe,” Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, said Tuesday, but Axios reports that Schumer has privately told donors he’s ready to dump Biden.
Two senior Democratic Party officials, who asked not to be named, told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that the past 24 hours had seen a “convergence” of opinion among Democratic lawmakers, donors and groups backing the president’s party.
One of the sources said all parties involved had reached “near agreement” on what Biden should do.
Questions about the Democratic campaign were also swirling at the NATO summit in Washington DC.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he was confident the United States would remain an ally whether Biden or NATO-skeptic Trump took over the White House next year.
At the press conference, the BBC asked Stoltenberg whether all 32 allies shared his optimism, despite their concerns about Biden’s candidacy.
“I’m not saying we can always ignore concerns,” Stoltenberg said, “but the more dangerous the world becomes, the more clearly we need NATO.”
“It’s in all of our interest to stand together, and that includes the United States,” he added.
Biden will hold an unusual solo news conference on Thursday and record an interview with NBC News on Monday that will air later in the evening.
Democrats speaking to the BBC in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Wednesday had mixed feelings about Biden.
Karen Gilchrist, a Harrisburg resident, said she continues to fully support Biden because he “knows exactly what he’s talking about.”
But in Elizabethtown, Melissa Nash, working on her laptop at a cafe, said, “I’m not sure because I’m not a fan of Trump, but at the same time, we need a strong person to lead the country.”
Additional reporting by Rebecca Hartman in Pennsylvania
