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Former President Joe Biden reportedly didn’t recognize George Clooney upon arriving at a June 2024 fundraiser that the actor was co-hosting for the then-presidential candidate, ultimately leading to Clooney’s decision to speak out against Biden’s ability to lead.
Biden, then 81, repeatedly had to be introduced to Clooney by an aide, but he still didn’t seem to register who Clooney was, according to a summary of the upcoming book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” that was published Tuesday in The New Yorker.
“It was not O.K.,” a source described as a Hollywood VIP who witnessed the jarring moment told the book’s authors, CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson. “That thing, the moment where you recognize someone you know — especially a famous person who’s doing a fucking fund-raiser for you — it was delayed. It was uncomfortable.”
Clooney, who has known Biden for years, was “shaken to his core,” Tapper and Thompson wrote.
The Oscar-winning actor reportedly went on to try to brush off what happened and blame it on extreme fatigue, with Biden having arrived at the Los Angeles event from Italy earlier that day. But then he saw Biden’s worrisome debate against then-candidate and former President Donald Trump and heard directly from numerous political leaders who expressed their own concerns.
Despite extreme pushback from Biden’s campaign, Clooney in July went ahead and published his controversial op-ed in The New York Times: “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.”
MANDEL NGAN via Getty Images
“We are not going to win in November with this president,” Clooney wrote. “This isn’t only my opinion; this is the opinion of every senator and Congress member and governor who I’ve spoken with in private. Every single one, irrespective of what he or she is saying publicly.”
Clooney, in an interview with Tapper last month, said he stands by his decision to write what he did. He said he doesn’t see it as courageous, as Tapper suggested.
“I don’t know if it was brave. It was a civic duty,” Clooney responded.
White House/Sharon Farmer
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“When I saw people on my side of the street not telling the truth, I thought that was time to,” he said, while acknowledging that some people remain mad at him for doing what he did.
Biden was the oldest-serving U.S. president when he left office in January. His age was a point of concern and contention throughout his administration, with it constantly being questioned and challenged by the public.
The Biden administration is accused of concealing his declining health from the public in Tapper and Thompson’s book.
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