{"id":103366,"date":"2025-05-15T11:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T11:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/103366\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T11:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T11:19:11","slug":"joe-biden-didnt-recognize-george-clooney-at-fundraiser-new-book-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/103366\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Biden didn’t recognize George Clooney at fundraiser, new book says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"play\"<\/p>\n

Joe Biden tells BBC Donald Trump is appeasing Russia<\/p>\n

In an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson, President Joe Biden suggests President Donald Trump is appeasing Russia.<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 Former President Joe Biden<\/a> did not recognize George Clooney<\/a> at a Los Angeles fundraiser the actor hosted for the president during the 2024 presidential campaign, according to an upcoming book<\/a> that details Biden’s decline before he ended his reelection bid.<\/p>\n

The moment that shook Clooney “to his core” \u2012 reported in “Original Sin,”<\/a> by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson \u2012 occurred at a backstage reception as he and actress Julia Roberts, another co-host of the June 15 fundraiser<\/a>, were posing for pictures with attendees.<\/p>\n

As Biden entered the room, he appeared “severely diminished, as if he\u2019d aged a decade since Clooney last saw him, in December, 2022,” and the president took tiny steps as an aide guided his arm, an excerpt of the book published by The New Yorker<\/a> reads.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know George,\u201d the assistant guiding Biden told the president, trying to remind him who was in front of him \u2012 one of the world’s most famous actors and the host of the lucrative event Biden was attending.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, yeah,\u201d Biden said. \u201cThank you for being here.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the exchange continued, the book says, “It seemed clear that the President had not recognized Clooney.”<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorge\u00a0Clooney,\u201d the aide clarified to Biden at the fundraiser.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, yeah!\u201d Biden said. \u201cHi, George!\u201d<\/p>\n

More: <\/strong>Aides discussed Biden possibly using wheelchair if he was reelected, new book says<\/a><\/p>\n

The Hollywood fundraiser, which raised more than $30 million, was a pivotal moment ahead of Biden’s decision one month later<\/a> to withdraw from the election. Biden’s state at the fundraiser was a sign of things to come 12 days later when the president struggled to complete sentences and convey coherent thoughts during a disastrous June 27 debate performance<\/a> against Donald Trump<\/p>\n

The fundraiser took place during a particularly busy stretch for Biden. The president flew to the event from Italy, where he <\/a>was for two days for a Group of Seven nations summit. He had just returned to Europe after being there days earlier honoring of Allied veterans in France on the 80th anniversary of D-Day. In between the European trips, Biden had swung back to the United States to be at home in Wilmington, Delaware<\/a>, for the verdict of his son Hunter Biden’s guns case trial.<\/p>\n

The book describes an alarmed crowd at the fundraiser \u2012 which featured Biden, former President Barack Obama and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel on stage \u2012 over Biden’s apparent diminishment, frail presentation and meandering answers to mostly soft-ball questions from Kimmel.<\/p>\n

At the end of the 30-minute discussion between the three men<\/a>, Biden gave a blank stare to the crowd as he began to walk off stage. Obama turned back and grabbed Biden’s arm, guiding him backstage.<\/p>\n

Among those who watched in astonishment at the fundraiser were New Hampshire Democratic U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster and California U.S. Rep. Julia Brownley.<\/p>\n

“They\u2019d seen him in the photo line, and Kuster could tell it was a struggle for the President to engage. It reminded her of being with an aging grandparent, worryingly thinking,\u00a0Oh, my gosh, what\u2019s going to happen next?” the book says.<\/p>\n

Less than one month after the fundraiser, Clooney \u2012 a onetime ardent Biden supporter \u2012 stunned the political world by calling for Biden to drop out of the race in a New York Times op-ed, writing<\/a>: “The one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can.”<\/p>\n

Clooney initially chalked up the Biden he witnessed in Los Angeles to jet lag from the president’s back-and-forth trips across the Atlantic Ocean but “then the debate confirmed all the fears that he\u2019d shoved aside,” according to the book.<\/p>\n

After Biden kept digging in after his debate performance \u2012 refusing to step aside \u2012 Clooney told Obama he was considering writing an op-ed calling for Biden to drop out. Obama told the actor that would only push Biden to dig in deeper, the book says.<\/p>\n

Clooney ultimately decided to write the New York Times op-ed, sending a copy to film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, a major Biden fundraiser, and senior Biden aide Steve Ricchetti, before its publication.<\/p>\n

More: <\/strong>‘Worst 100 days’: Joe Biden defends legacy, attacks Donald Trump on ‘The View’<\/a><\/p>\n

Ahead of the May 20 release of “Original Sin” and other books about his presidency, Biden has sat down for several interviews<\/a> in an apparent attempt to rehabilitate his public image.<\/p>\n

“They are wrong. There’s nothing to sustain that,” Biden told ABC’s The View when asked about the books questioning his cognitive abilities. Biden said he believes he would have defeated Trump had he not dropped out of the race, which paved the way for his vice president, Kamala Harris<\/a>, to be party’s new nominee.<\/p>\n

A Biden spokesperson told USA TODAY in a statement: \u201cWe have not reviewed the book, and the authors did not fact-check the book with us, despite it being a common practice to do so. So we are not going to respond to every bit of this book they choose to release via select leaks in the reporters’ efforts to make a profit.<\/p>\n

“We continue to await anything that shows\u00a0where Joe Biden<\/a> had to make a presidential decision or where national security was threatened or where he was unable to do his job. In fact, the evidence points to the opposite – he was a very effective president,” the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n

Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Biden tells BBC Donald Trump is appeasing Russia In an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson, President…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[20298,47638,5784,4021,6893,6904,6890,5492,47637,6898,6907,4080,5787,47633,1594,33,77,5491,5498,3968,37808,18558,6888,16305,47640,47634,38513,6889,714,47636,47639,6887,2175,47635,3462,5791,3943,6584,12,6894,5179,6591,285,1017,5181,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-103366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-20298","9":"tag-2024-u-s-general-elections","10":"tag-affiliate","11":"tag-arts","12":"tag-barack","13":"tag-barack-obama","14":"tag-biden","15":"tag-branch","16":"tag-brownley","17":"tag-campaigns","18":"tag-campaigns-u0026-elections","19":"tag-celebrities","20":"tag-celebrities-u0026-entertainment-news","21":"tag-clooney","22":"tag-cnn","23":"tag-elections","24":"tag-entertainment","25":"tag-executive","26":"tag-executive-branch","27":"tag-general","28":"tag-george","29":"tag-george-clooney","30":"tag-harris","31":"tag-hunter","32":"tag-hunter-biden","33":"tag-jimmy","34":"tag-jimmy-kimmel","35":"tag-joe","36":"tag-joe-biden","37":"tag-julia","38":"tag-julia-brownley","39":"tag-kamala","40":"tag-kamala-harris","41":"tag-kimmel","42":"tag-local","43":"tag-local-affiliate-arts-u0026-entertainment","44":"tag-movies","45":"tag-negative","46":"tag-news","47":"tag-obama","48":"tag-overall","49":"tag-overall-negative","50":"tag-politics","51":"tag-u-s","52":"tag-u0026","53":"tag-united-states","54":"tag-us","55":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}