George Clooney pens op-ed calling on Biden to step down as nominee

Hollywood actor and film producer George Clooney penned an op-ed Wednesday calling on President Joe Biden to step down as the Democratic nominee after hosting a fundraiser for him last month. 

The actor, who fundraised for Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Biden in 2020, wrote the essay to warn of the effect Biden's age would have on the election after observing him firsthand at a fundraiser only weeks ago. 

"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-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," Clooney wrote. 

He also criticized party leaders for failing to confront the issue head-on and instead continuing to ignore "every warning sign." 

"This is about age. Nothing more. But also nothing that can be reversed. 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. 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. 

Clooney is the latest in a string of Hollywood donors to Biden that have called on the president to step aside from the nomination. Ari Emmanuel, the CEO of an entertainment and travel agency, wrote in the Economist this week urging Biden to back out of the presidential race. Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, who donated $1.4 million to Biden's 2020 campaign, also called for the president to step aside.