Obama Didn’t Even Try to Stop That Brutal Clooney Op-Ed on Biden

Before actor George Clooney published an op-ed in The New York Times Wednesday calling for President Joe Biden to withdraw from the 2024 race, he reportedly reached out to former President Barack Obama, who didn’t try to dissuade him. 

Obama didn’t encourage or advise Clooney on what to say, but he also didn’t try to stop him, according to Politico, which is telling, considering what Clooney ended up writing. The actor didn’t hold back, saying, “We are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate.”

Clooney and Obama are on friendly terms. The actor hosted a major fundraiser for Biden last month that the former president also attended, raising $28 million for Biden. Obama initially publicly defended Biden after his disastrous debate performance two weeks ago, saying that “this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself.”

But he didn’t try to dissuade a high-profile celebrity from calling for Biden’s ouster, and that could be an omen for Biden. Obama isn’t just a former president, but one of the most senior Democratic figures in the country aside from Biden. This may signal an opening for Biden to be replaced without objections from Obama, if not his outright approval.

Obama’s non-objection to a major call for Biden to step down echoes similar actions from other leading Democrats, including Senator Tim Kaine and Representative Nancy Pelosi. Rank-and-file Democratic politicians can take all of this as a sign that their objections to Biden staying on aren’t hurting their standing with the party, and could ultimately strengthen the momentum behind the efforts to replace Biden with a new candidate.