Biden Didn’t Recognize George Clooney At Campaign Event, New Book Says
HuffPost
The encounter ultimately led to Clooney’s decision to speak out against Biden’s ability to lead.
Former President Joe Biden reportedly didn’t recognize George Clooney upon arriving at a June 2024 fundraiser that the actor was co-hosting for the then-presidential candidate, ultimately leading to Clooney’s decision to speak out against Biden’s ability to lead.
Biden, then 81, repeatedly had to be introduced to Clooney by an aide, but he still didn’t seem to register who Clooney was, according to a summary of the upcoming book, “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again,” that was published Tuesday in The New Yorker.
“It was not O.K.,” a source described as a Hollywood VIP who witnessed the jarring moment told the book’s authors, CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson. “That thing, the moment where you recognize someone you know — especially a famous person who’s doing a fucking fund-raiser for you — it was delayed. It was uncomfortable.”
Clooney, who has known Biden for years, was “shaken to his core,” Tapper and Thompson wrote.
The Oscar-winning actor reportedly went on to try to brush off what happened and blame it on extreme fatigue, with Biden having arrived at the Los Angeles event from Italy earlier that day. But then he saw Biden’s worrisome debate against then-candidate and former President Donald Trump and heard directly from numerous political leaders who expressed their own concerns.
