George Clooney and Rob Reiner warn of defeat if Joe Biden stays as presidential candidate

Calls for Joe Biden to step aside as the Democratic party’s presidential candidate have grown further with high profile actor and Democratic party donor George Clooney warning of a massive defeat in November.

Actor and big time Democratic Party donor George Clooney has called for Joe Biden to stand aside or be thrashed by Donald Trump in November, as former Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested the president may yet drop out of the race.

The most senior congressional Democrat — Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer — has privately signalled to donors that he is open to a presidential candidate other Mr Biden, Axios reported on Wednesday.

Democrat senator Peter Welch publicly called on Mr Biden to ditch his reelection bid. At least eight House Democrats have openly called on Biden to not seek reelection, but Senator Welch has became the first in the Senate to explicitly do so as concerns rise over his age and fitness.

“For the good of the country, I’m calling on President Biden to withdraw from the race,” the Vermont senator said in an opinion piece in the Washington Post.

However, Senator Schumer reiterated support for Biden in a statement late on Wednesday after the Axios report came out.

“As I have made clear repeatedly publicly and privately, I support President Biden and remain committed to ensuring Donald Trump is defeated in November,” Schumer said in a statement shared by his office.

As the president and his staff tried to staunch the loss of support among party members and voters since his June 27 horror debate, Clooney wrote in a bombshell, unexpected article in the New York Times that Democrats would lose both chambers of congress in November as well as the presidency if Joe Biden stayed as the nominee.

“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,” he wrote in an article that appeared Wednesday morning (Thursday AEST) that sent shockwaves through the ruling party establishment.

Joe Biden suffered a stunning blow when supporter George Clooney urged him to drop his reelection bid, while party heavyweight Nancy Pelosi declined to back his candidacy.

Clooney, who last month hosted the single largest fundraiser for any Democratic candidate for President Biden’s re-election, praised the president’s service, his morals and character and his defeat of Donald Trump in 2020.

“But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can. 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”.

The president, 81, was widely criticised for his performance at the Clooney fund raiser in California, where he appeared along side former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama: at one point he appeared to need to be led off the stage in a confused state.

“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,” Clooney wrote.

The devastating opinion piece came as the drip feed of senators and members of congress calling on the president to stand aside or face a wipe out continued as Mr Biden was hosting NATO leaders in Washington ahead of a scheduled make of break press conference on Thursday afternoon local time.

Democrat congressman Pat Ryan from New York in a telephone interview on Wednesday said “for the good of our country, for my two young kids, I’m asking Joe Biden to step aside in the upcoming election and deliver on the promise to be a bridge to a new generation of leaders”.

“I’d be doing a grave disservice if I said he was the best candidate to serve this fall,” he said in a telephone interview, becoming the eight member of congress

The president’s chance of being re-elected in November have tumbled to below 20 per cent from around 35 per cent before the debate, according to average of eight political betting markets tracked by RealClear Politics, while Mr Trump’s has edged up almost to 60 per cent.

Separately, the former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who had already questioned Joe Biden’s debate performance, suggested the president had not made a definitive decision about his future, despite his lengthy letter to Democrat members of congress from earlier in the week where he said he’d made up his mind.

“It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run,” the 84-year-old former Democratic Party speaker told MSNBC in an interview.

“We’re all encouraging him to make that decision. Because time is running short… I want him to do whatever he decides to do. And that’s the way it is. Whatever he decides, we go with,” she added in remarks that confused some observers given the White House’s repeated statements the president had made up his mind.

The further haemorrhaging of support also came as the influential and nonpartisan Cook Political Report said Biden was on track to lose Arizona, Georgia and Nevada, three crucial swing states that Democrats won in 2020.

Director and fellow Democratic Party donor Rob Reiner backed Clooney’s call a few hours later, declaring in a post on social media that democracy was “facing an existential threat”.

“We need someone younger to fight back. Joe Biden must step aside.”

My friend George Clooney has clearly expressed what many of us have been saying. We love and respect Joe Biden. We acknowledge all he has done for our country. But Democracy is facing an existential threat. We need someone younger to fight back. Joe Biden must step aside.…

— Rob Reiner (@robreiner) July 10, 2024