George Clooney, the Hollywood actor and significant Democratic fund-raiser who co-hosted a lavish event for President Biden last month, wrote in a guest essay in The New York Times that Democrats “are not going to win in November with this president.”
Clooney, who hosted the major fund-raiser for President Biden last month, expressed in the essay that Mr. Biden was too old to seek re-election and should end his campaign.
“The one battle he cannot win is the fight against time,” Clooney wrote. “It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser 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.”
Last month, Clooney hosted a $28 million fund-raiser in Hollywood for Mr. Biden, which the campaign reported as the largest ever for a Democratic candidate. This makes Clooney the highest-profile figure in the party to call for the president to end his campaign.
The Biden campaign planned the Hollywood fund-raiser around Clooney’s schedule, according to an anonymous source involved in the preparations. The event required Mr. Biden to fly from a Group of 7 gathering in Italy to California and back to Washington in a short period. Mr. Biden later blamed jet lag from that trip for his lethargy in the days leading up to the first debate and his weak performance during it.
Clooney’s essay was published just hours after Representative Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker and influential Democratic figure, suggested in a television interview that “it’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run.”
Mr. Biden and his top aides have insisted that he is staying in the race until the end. On Monday, he told top donors that he was done addressing the debate — though he brought it up again during a video call with Democratic mayors on Tuesday night.
Clooney’s essay echoed the sentiments of many Democrats, who have been privately expressing concerns since the debate nearly two weeks ago. They believe Mr. Biden is threatening not only his own chances in November but also those of fellow Democrats down the ballot.
“We are not going to win in November with this president,” Clooney wrote. “On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate. 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.”
Another Hollywood figure with deep ties to Democratic fund-raising, the actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner, echoed Clooney’s call for Mr. Biden to quit the race. “Democracy is facing an existential threat,” Reiner wrote on social media. “We need someone younger to fight back. Joe Biden must step aside.”
Clooney’s public call for Mr. Biden to end his campaign comes after the president had appeared to stabilize support within Democratic ranks. However, the combination of Pelosi’s suggestion and Clooney’s high-profile defection is likely to prompt new questions for Mr. Biden and his team.
Before the fund-raiser last month, Clooney had complained to the White House after Mr. Biden criticized the International Criminal Court’s decision to seek a warrant against top Israeli officials over the war in Gaza. Clooney’s wife, Amal Clooney, a human rights lawyer, had helped conduct the court’s investigation.
Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for the Biden campaign, referred questions about Clooney’s essay to the president’s letter to congressional Democrats on Monday, which reiterated that he would stay in the race.
