Hollywood star and major Democrat fundraiser George Clooney has begged President Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race to let another candidate take his place.
Clooney, a lifelong Democrat, wrote a guest essay in the New York Times calling on Biden to pull out of the race for a second term in the White House, stating he’s “not the Joe ‘big f***ing deal’ Biden of 2010.”
The actor argues that Biden needs to step aside to give the Democrats a chance to beat President Donald Trump.
“We are not going to win in November with this president,” Clooney warned.
Clooney has made the call just three weeks after he was in Biden’s company at a glitzy VIP fundraising event.
On the night, questions were raised about Biden’s health.
Following the event, videos emerged showing Biden’s predecessor, Barack Obama, taking the 81-year-old president’s hand to help him exit the stage.
“I love Joe Biden,” Clooney said in his opinion piece.
“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.
“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 comes as Biden’s re-election effort has been under intense scrutiny since a disastrous performance in a debate with Trump last month.
In a withering critique, Clooney continues:
“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.
“He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020.
“He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.
“Was he tired? Yes. A cold? Maybe,” he continued.
“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.”
Biden has so far resisted calls to step down, including from some in his own party.
The president insists he is “firmly committed” to staying in the race.
He is now urging his fellow Democrats to put the debate to rest.
However, Clooney wrote: “This is about age. Nothing more.
“But also nothing that can be reversed.
“We are not going to win in November with this president.”
He added that after the debate “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.”
He admitted changing the nominee with so little time to go to the November election would be “messy.”
Nevertheless, he argues it would also “enliven our party and wake up voters who, long before the June debate, had already checked out.”
The piece was headlined: “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.”
Clooney concluded his essay by claiming Biden was a “hero” for “beating” Trump in the previous election.
He continued by suggesting that Biden can help to beat Trump in November by stepping down.
“He saved democracy in 2020,” Clooney said.
“We need him to do it again in 2024.”
Earlier, Biden’s re-election effort suffered a significant setback after one of his most prominent and long-time allies declined to endorse him.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) stopped short of offering her support when asked if she backed his run for a second term in the White House.
Pelosi was asked on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” if Biden had her support to be the head of the Democrat ticket.
She replied: “It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run.
“We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short.”
Asked if she wants him to run, Pelosi said:
“I want him to do whatever he decides to do, and that’s… that’s the way it is.
“Whatever he decides, we go with.”
With regard to the public debate over Biden’s future, Pelosi said:
“I’ve said everyone, let’s just hold off, whatever you’re thinking, either tell somebody privately, but you don’t have to put that out on the table until we see how we go this week.”
President Biden is currently hosting NATO’s 75th-anniversary summit in Washington D.C. this week.
He is also due to host a solo news conference on Thursday.
The events are regarded as critical tests of his mental fitness.
Several congressional Democrats have gone public with their fears that Biden’s performance will cost him the election and hamper them in their election contests for the Senate and House of Representatives.
The voices calling for Biden to quit have been joined, for the first time, by a Democrat senator who warned of a potential Trump landslide.
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) told CNN:
“Donald Trump is on track, I think, to win this election, and maybe win it by a landslide, and take with him the Senate and the House.”
Biden has so far stalled the momentum of party revolt.
However, Democrats remain divided over his future.
Part of the president’s effort to demonstrate his fitness for office included an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, during which he was grilled about his fitness for office.
As Slay News reported earlier, media outlet TMZ broadcast a clip of the TV host being asked, on camera, by someone in the street:
“Do you think Biden should step down?”
Stephanopoulos replied: “I don’t think he can serve four more years.”
He has since issued a statement of apology.
ABC has said that Stephanopoulos had “expressed his own point of view and not the position of ABC News.”
READ MORE – Biden’s Covid Response Chief Admits ‘Harmful’ Vaccine Mandates Were a Mistake
