Clooney intervention on Biden influenced by Obama, pundits say
George Clooney once said he promised former US president Barack Obama: “I’ll give you whatever support you need – including staying completely away from you.”
Political pundits have suggested that safe distance could be the length of a bombshell New York Times opinion article, after the actor and major Democrat fundraiser called for Joe Biden to quit the presidential election race.
Mr Obama had reportedly been in touch with Clooney before Wednesday’s NYT article was published, and while he did not encourage or advise the actor to say what he did in the opinion piece, he also did not object to it, people familiar with their exchange told Politico.
Clooney, 63, joined a chorus of Democrat voices urging the President to step down after his fumbling performance in a televised presidential debate against Donald Trump on 27 June, including ex-Obama aides who have been some of the loudest voices.
Clooney said he had witnessed Mr Biden’s decline during a fundraiser he hosted with former president Mr Obama, late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel and actress Julia Roberts in Los Angeles on 15 June, which reportedly raised more than $30m for the Democrat party. A clip from the fundraiser that made the rounds on social media appeared to show Mr Biden freezing on stage and being guided off by Mr Obama.
Mr Biden, Clooney said, 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”.
US observers immediately noted Mr Obama’s potential influence on Clooney’s article, pointing to how the two have close ties dating back almost two decades.
“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 wrote.
Conservative lawyer and commentator Clay Travis, founder of American sports and political commentary website OutKick, argued that the NYT article was part of coordinated friendly fire by the Democrats to get Mr Biden to step aside, with Mr Obama pulling the strings.
“I don’t think George Clooney would say this without a tacit nod from Barack Obama,” he said. “I think what is happening now is Barack Obama is beginning to pull the threads behind the scenes and driving the anti-Joe Biden train without actually having to speak out yet… this George Clooney editorial is hinting Obama might be about to drop the hammer.”
Dr Thomas Gift, associate professor of political science at University College London, was sceptical about the level of Mr Obama’s involvement, but said it “wouldn’t be surprising if Clooney ran his op-ed by elites within the Democratic Party before publishing it”.
“Ultimately, Clooney is an independent voice, and the decision to pen such a scathing indictment of Biden’s health is up to him,” he told i. “The notion that this was a coordinated hit job orchestrated by Obama strikes me as both conspiratorial and hard to fathom.”
Despite their former boss’s public statements supporting Mr Biden, Mr Obama’s former aides David Axelrod and John Favreau – members of a group known as the “Obama bros” – expressed support for Clooney’s opinion article on social media and talk shows as they pleaded with the Democratic Party to pick a new nominee.
“I think there is merit to it,” Mr Axelrod, a former Obama adviser, told CNN. Reading out an excerpt from Clooney’s article, he said: “That is devastating, and it is what people fear.”
Appearing alongside him on CNN, former Obama speechwriter Mr Favreau added: “Every single person I talked to at the fundraiser thought the same thing, except for the people working for Joe Biden, or at least they didn’t say that.
“I remember my wife, Emily, turned to me after the fundraiser and said ‘what are we going to do?’”
Clooney has for years been a powerful fundraiser for the Democrats, having supported both of Mr Obama’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns and endorsed Hillary Clinton’s bid for the White House in 2016.
Todd Landman, professor of political science at Nottingham University, said of Clooney and Mr Obama’s relationship: “There is a tight circle there, they have done fundraisers together. There’s probably some conversations going on there.”
Mr Obama, 62, has remained silent on the issue but has raised concerns with allies privately, according to The Washington Post, citing people familiar with the remarks.
Publicly, though, he has made statements in support of Mr Biden, who served as vice president during his term in office between 2009 and 2017.
“Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself,” Mr Obama said after Mr Biden’s debate performance.