George Clooney has abandoned Joe Biden. That's right, the superstar actor who just helped the president raise millions of dollars wants him to drop out of the race.
You may not care what an artist who is not involved in politics has to say, but what matters here is his reasoning:
“It's devastating to say, but the Joe Biden I stood with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe Biden of 2010,” Clooney wrote in an op-ed published yesterday in the New York Times. “He wasn't even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all saw at the debate.”
This is coming from a supporter, a lifelong Democrat who declares his love for Biden and who has watched the man up close.
“We're not going to win in November with this president. We're not going to win the House and we're going to lose the Senate. This isn't just my opinion; it's the opinion of every senator, member of Congress and governor I've spoken to privately. Every single one of them, regardless of what they say publicly.”
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President Biden (right) greets actor George Clooney (left) during the Kennedy Center Honors reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, Sunday, December 4, 2022. (Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
That's the weirdness of the political limbo we live in. I've been wondering if Biden would be sidelined if every Democratic lawmaker could cast a secret vote to deny him the nomination, but we don't have a parliamentary system, where a vote of no confidence wins.
Biden has made it clear that he will not resign, no matter how many pundits and politicians demand it, and no one can force him to do so.
But what happens if the noise level and pressure are too great?
Nancy Pelosi was on “Morning Joe” yesterday, the same show where Biden promised to compete against the “elites,” and was asked if she wanted him to stay in the race.
“It's up to the president to decide whether he runs or not,” the former president said. “We all encourage him to make that decision, because time is running out.”
It's not exactly a ringing endorsement, but more of a bat signal.
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Michael Bennet became the first Senate Democrat to say Biden will lose in November and that Republicans will take control of both chambers.
President Biden walks on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on Sunday, July 7, after returning from a trip to Pennsylvania. (AP/Susan Walsh)
I've interviewed Clooney a couple of times. He's a smart guy, the son of a journalist. He may have paved the way for others to dare to speak out.
Yesterday on “The View,” Michael Douglas, who also expressed admiration for Biden, said, “I'm not necessarily worried about today or tomorrow, but a year from now, I'm worried… I'm deeply, deeply concerned.”
Clooney's defection is more significant than similar requests from anti-Trump Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. That's because he was actually part of the campaign, and the comparison to the abysmal debate was devastating.
But it’s not as if Biden is going to retire as long as Clooney keeps inviting him to Lake Como. He’s wanted to be president all his adult life. I covered his first campaign in 1987, after which he had to undergo emergency brain surgery for an aneurysm. No one can force him to give up the White House and Air Force One.
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Something happens to a candidate who becomes president after being repeatedly rejected: he comes to believe that he has a superpower, to have faith in his own abilities, despite critics and detractors. The same thing happened to Donald Trump when few expected him to win in 2016.
Former President Donald Trump during a campaign event at Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday. (Eva Marie Uzcategui/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Biden has been slow to react. He has just announced that he will meet with NBC anchor Lester Holt next Monday. The president should have already given half a dozen interviews, not just called Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski to complain about the elites.
Instead, he was encouraged to talk about George Stephanopoulos, but his performance was hesitant and listless. Biden appeared to deny this, saying he did not believe polls showing Trump widening his lead since the CNN debate.
But tongues are flying. On his podcast yesterday, NBC's Chuck Todd said that a “pretty high-ranking” Cabinet secretary told him two years ago: “You can't run for office like this again.”
“It's the classic open secret, isn't it?” Todd said. “It's the story that everyone knows and everyone was afraid to talk about.”
Well, “everyone” didn't know. And you can't reveal an off-the-record conversation.
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Most journalists were not given access to Biden or his inner circle, but they saw the obvious decline on television. Then the debate blew it all up.
The New York Times says the president may be trying to waste time, waiting until it's too late for others to do something to open the door for Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer or any other Democrat.
In my view, the only thing that might make Biden reconsider his position is if Hakeem Jeffries, Jim Clyburn and Pelosi came to the White House and told him that the party wants him to step aside. And even then, the president who won 99% of the delegates might still dig in his heels.
