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US President Joe Biden was left reeling Wednesday when actor and leading Democratic supporter George Clooney urged him to drop his reelection bid, while party heavyweight Nancy Pelosi declined to back his candidacy.
As the 81-year-old tried to show his leadership credentials at a NATO summit in Washington, domestic pressure mounted on Biden to quit following his disastrous debate performance against Republican challenger Donald Trump.
Biden has been trying to stem a growing tide of Democrats saying that he cannot win in November, but Clooney’s surprise intervention squashed efforts to turn the page on the crisis.
The Hollywood star penned a devastating editorial in the New York Times just three weeks after co-hosting a huge fundraiser in Los Angeles that raised nearly $30 million for Biden.
“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010,” wrote Clooney.
“He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
Clooney said that Biden would lose the presidential election, and Democrats would also lose both chambers of Congress.
At the June 15 fundraiser in Los Angeles co-hosted by Clooney and fellow movie star Julia Roberts, Biden appeared tired as he took to the stage alongside former president Barack Obama.
