CNN anchor Jake Tapper appeared taken aback by a claim from President Joe Biden’s campaign that he had more stamina than George Clooney after the A-list actor penned an op-ed calling on the Democrat to stand down and not seek re-election this fall.
During Wednesday’s broadcast of Tapper’s late afternoon news show “The Lead With Jake Tapper,” Kayla Tausche, a senior White House correspondent for CNN, said she was told by a Biden campaign official that Clooney, 63, left a Hollywood fundraiser last month three hours before the president.
“But what does that mean? That George Clooney left three before? What’s the point?” Tapper asked Tausche during the segment.
“The point of that is to suggest that Biden’s stamina is better than Clooney’s. And Clooney didn’t have, you know, eyes on the entire event,” she responded.
“That’s the response to the Clooney op-ed.”
“OK,” Tapper replied, cracking a smile while wearing an expression of amazement. The segment was reported by Mediaite.
Biden, who is 81 years old, has resisted calls from Clooney and other top Democrats to step aside following his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump last month.
Weeks before the debate, Clooney, Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand were among those who took the stage for a fundraiser that took in a record $30 million-plus for Biden, in hopes of energizing would-be supporters for a White House contest they said may rank among the most consequential in US history.
Clooney, the movie star and high-profile Hollywood donor and fundraiser for Biden, wrote a New York Times op-ed in which he declared his “love” for the president but nonetheless urged him to drop out of the campaign.
Let’s break down Clooney’s role in Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign
- George Clooney has played a role in Democratic fundraising since Barack Obama’s 2012 run, including leading a benefit for former Vice President Joe Biden in 2020 and another in June 2024.
- Clooney, joined by actresses Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand, helped Biden take in a record $30 million-plus at a star-studded fundraising event in New York City just last month.
- Just weeks later, Clooney turned on Biden and published an op-ed in the New York Times calling for the 81-year-old to leave the race following his atrocious debate appearance.
- Clooney wrote that Biden “cannot win” in November, adding that the president is not the man he used to know, but rather “the same man we all witnessed at the debate.” The actor even said that “every senator and Congress member and governor that I’ve spoken with in private” agrees that Biden must step down.
- Donald Trump blasted Clooney for his comments, telling him to “get out of politics and go back to TV,” and said the actor had “turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are.”
- A report also revealed that Obama knew ahead of time what Clooney planned to write and did not object to the op-ed.
The news site Politico reported late Wednesday that former President Barack Obama had advance knowledge that Clooney would publish the op-ed. According to the report, Obama did not try to dissuade his friend from going through with the op-ed.
Clooney said in the Times opinion piece that the party would lose the presidential race as well as any control in Congress with Biden 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,” wrote Clooney.
He’s hosted several high-dollar Hollywood fundraisers, including for Biden last month.
Clooney argued the party should pick a new nominee at its convention next month, saying the process would be “messy” but “wake up” voters in the party’s favor, mentioning Vice President Kamala Harris and Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Gavin Newsom of California among those from who the country should now hear.
Focusing much of his piece around Biden’s age, Clooney noted differences he saw in the 81-year-old president during their recent Los Angeles event compared to years past.
“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F–king deal’ Biden of 2010,” Clooney wrote.
“He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
Clooney isn’t alone in his characterization of his recent exchange with Biden.
A person who interacted closely with Biden described the president as vibrant and engaging at a fundraiser in March but, at the Los Angeles event months later, told the Associated Press that they noticed a notable diminishment in Biden’s presence.
The person, who spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity to discuss private interactions with the president, recalled being struck by how tired and “out of it” the president seemed during backstage conversations at the Los Angeles event.
The unnamed individual said they gave Biden the benefit of the doubt for not being as voluble and showing lower energy off-stage because he arrived in Los Angeles after traveling from Italy where he had attended an international summit.
Asked for comment on Clooney’s essay, Biden’s campaign pointed to the president’s letter to congressional Democrats earlier in the week vowing to stay in the race.
His team also disputed the actor’s representation of Biden’s demeanor during the Los Angeles fundraiser, with campaign officials who attended the event pointing out that the president stayed for more than three hours at the event, despite just having returned from Europe.
Biden has refused to end his reelection bid after his weak debate performance against presumptive Republican nominee Trump on June 27.
With Post Wires
