Hollywood actor and prominent Democratic fundraiser George Clooney has called on US President Joe Biden to step aside from the 2024 election race, warning that the party cannot win with him at the helm. In an opinion article for the New York Times, Clooney expressed deep affection for Biden but argued that his performance at a recent Los Angeles fundraiser and in last month's debate suggests the president is no longer fit to defeat Donald Trump.
Clooney, who hosted a record-breaking $30m fundraiser with Biden and Barack Obama, wrote that the Biden he met three weeks ago was not the same vigorous figure of 2010 or even 2020. He dismissed explanations that the president was merely tired or ill, stating: 'Our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw.'
The actor explicitly stated that Biden cannot win a rematch with Trump, urging party leaders to stop waiting and speak the truth. 'We can put our heads in the sand and pray for a miracle in November, or we can speak the truth,' Clooney wrote, adding that 'the dam has broken' on internal party dissent.
Clooney paid tribute to Biden's past achievements but said the one battle he cannot win is against time. He called for leading Democrats to step up and convince the president to withdraw, dismissing as 'disingenuous' Biden's argument that primary voters had already chosen him as the nominee.
His intervention comes weeks after a reported disagreement with the White House over Biden's criticism of the International Criminal Court's warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Clooney's wife, Amal Clooney, had worked on the case. Despite the rift, Clooney appeared alongside Biden and Obama at the LA fundraiser.
