George Clooney calls on Joe Biden to drop out of presidential race

George Clooney, actor, activist and major donor to the Democratic Party, called on Wednesday (10) for US President Joe Biden to leave the presidential race, in an opinion piece in the New York Times.

In the text, Clooney openly criticized Biden’s current state, but also reinforced his admiration for the president.

“I love Joe Biden. As a senator. As a vice president and as a president. I consider him a friend and I believe in him. I believe in his character. I believe in his morals. Over the last four years, he has won many of the battles he has faced,” he said.

“But the only battle he can’t win is the fight against time,” the actor pointed out.

Clooney said that the “Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe ‘big f–ing deal’ Biden of 2010,” using an expletive-laced phrase to recall the Democrat’s performance that year.

“He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed in the debate,” he said.

“Our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw. We are all so terrified of the prospect of a second Trump term that we chose to ignore all the warning signs,” he said.

Clooney called on top Democrats to ask Biden to “voluntarily step aside,” citing Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and former House Speaker and senior Democrat Nancy Pelosi.

“We are not going to win in November with this president,” Clooney warned, adding that lawmakers he spoke to privately shared that view.

Clooney headlined a June 15 fundraiser with Biden and former President Barack Obama that raised about $28 million for his reelection campaign.

A few weeks before that fundraiser, Biden sharply criticized efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders.

Amal Clooney, George Clooney’s wife, was among the group of legal experts who advised the ICC to seek such warrants.