George Clooney calls on Joe Biden to drop out as Hollywood flips on president
A-lister George Clooney has dealt a huge blow to Joe Biden’s election bid, with the Democratic donor saying the President was too old and would lose to Donald Trump.
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Hollywood star George Clooney reignited the Democratic rebellion against US President Joe Biden, leaving him fighting for his political life in a critical press conference Friday morning (Australian time).
Any slip-ups in Mr Biden’s rare question-and-answer session with reporters at 7.30am (AEST) were expected to add fuel to the fire that has engulfed his leadership since a disastrous debate against Donald Trump.
In an extraordinary column in the News York Times, Clooney – who hosted a star-studded fundraiser for the 81-year-old on June 15 – broke ranks to say Biden was too old and would lose to Trump in November’s election.
Democratic powerbroker Nancy Pelosi – the former House speaker – also urged the oldest president in history to reconsider whether he should run for another four-year term, despite Mr Biden having defiantly declared that he would not drop out.
And in a further blow to Mr Biden, it emerged that Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer had privately signalled to donors that he was open to a new candidate, while Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries told colleagues he would share their fears directly with him.
While the party is bitterly divided over how to move forward, Vice President Kamala Harris is the most likely candidate to replace Mr Biden if he steps down, with popular Democratic governors Gretchen Whitmer and Gavin Newsom both saying they would not run.
In his explosive column, two-time Academy Award winner Clooney – a long-time party donor – said: “We are not going to win in November with this president. 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.”
It came as Vermont senator Peter Welch became the first Democratic member of Congress’s upper chamber to call on Mr Biden to quit.
“We have asked President Biden to do so much for so many for so long,” he said in an essay published by the Washington Post.
“It has required unmatched selflessness and courage. We need him to put us first, as he has done before. I urge him to do it now.”
The fundraiser Clooney co-hosted also featured fellow Hollywood actor Julia Roberts and former president Barack Obama, and came in the middle of Mr Biden’s overseas travel that he later blamed for his disastrous debate performance against Trump.
CLOONEY’S OP ED ‘DEVASTATING’
Former Obama advisor David Axelrod said Clooney’s op-ed was “devastating” to Biden’s presidential bid.
In his column, Clooney said the oldest president in history was “not even the Joe Biden of 2020” during the star-studded event, and was instead “the same man we all witnessed at the debate” that has since prompted mass panic about his candidacy.
The President had defiantly sought to save his besieged leadership this week and appeared to stave off a wider Democratic Party rebellion after members of Congress held crisis talks.
“I’m not going to explain anymore about what I should or shouldn’t do -- I am running,” Mr Biden said in a TV interview.
But as Clooney went public with his fears over November’s election, the most senior congressional Democrat -- former House speaker Nancy Pelosi -- also suggested Mr Biden should reconsider his candidacy.
Asked if she supported him, the 84-year-old party icon said: “It’s up to the President to decide if he’s going to run.”
“We’re all encouraging him to make that decision, because time is running short,” she said.
When Ms Pelosi was pressed over the fact that Mr Biden said he had already made up his mind, she said: “I want him to do whatever he decides to do ... Whatever he decides, we go with.”
Her comments opened the door to more Democratic defections and ramped up the pressure on Mr Biden to perform strongly in a press conference due to be held at the end of the NATO summit in Washington DC on Thursday (local time).
Clooney criticised senior party figures for “opting to wait and see if the dam breaks”.
“But 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 said.
“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.”
“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.”
He called for the party to use its convention next month to allow its “very exciting bench” of leaders to compete for the nomination to square off against Trump, the former Republican president.
“Would it be messy? Yes. Democracy is messy,” Clooney said.
“But would it enliven our party and wake up voters who, long before the June debate, had already checked out? It sure would. The short ramp to election day would be a benefit for us, not a danger.”
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