Hollywood star George Clooney has called on Democrats to nominate a brand new candidate for the 2024 presidential election because President Joe Biden “cannot win.”
Clooney called for a brand new candidate in a commentary published within the New York Times Wednesday, nearly 4 weeks after he co-hosted a star-studded Biden fundraiser in Los Angeles. Clooney said he noticed that the 81-year-old president on the event was not the Biden of 2010 or 2020, however the “man we all saw at the debate.”
Referring to Biden's halting, inarticulate and politically disastrous debate performance, Clooney said, “Our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn't see what we just saw. We are all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we have chosen to ignore every warning sign.”
The Oscar winner also said that Biden's interview with George Stephanopoulos “only confirmed what we saw the week before. As Democrats, we collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume when we see the president we respect step off Air Force One or go back to the microphone to answer an impromptu question.”
Clooney stressed that he’s a proud, lifelong Democrat who loves Biden, “as a senator. As vice president and as president.” Clooney said, “I consider him a friend and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. Over the last four years, he has won many of the battles he has fought.”
But, says Clooney, “the only battle he can't win is the battle against time.”
Clooney also stressed that this was not only his opinion, but “the opinion of every senator, congressman and governor I have spoken to privately. Every single one, regardless of what he or she says publicly.”
Clooney called on party leadership to talk out and call on Biden to resign. He said the party has “a very exciting bench” of potential candidates, including Kamala Harris, Wes Moore, Gretchen Whitmer, Gavin Newsom, Andy Beshear, JB Pritzker and others. Clooney acknowledged the strategy of choosing a brand new candidate will probably be “messy,” but said “democracy is messy” and this may “invigorate our party and wake up voters who had tuned out long before the June debate.”
Clooney concluded his comment by saying: “Joe Biden is a hero. He saved democracy in 2020. We need him to do it again in 2024.”
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