Biden, Trump, Obama, and George Clooney Are All Fighting

In the aftermath of Clooney publishing a cutting op-ed calling for Biden to step down, Biden and Trump (???) are both hitting back, all amid rumors that Obama himself knew of the op-ed, and sat back and let Clooney cook…

By Kylie Cheung  |  July 11, 2024 | 4:09pm
Photos: Getty Images Politics
Biden, Trump, Obama, and George Clooney Are All Fighting

Despite a brash, lengthy letter from President Biden to Congressional Democrats on Monday stating, unequivocally, that he’s staying in the race, simmering tensions and continued calls for him to step aside have persisted. Top Democrats from Nancy Pelosi to Tim Kaine keep insisting that Biden *will* make the right decision…even though he’s repeatedly said he’s already made his decision, so, take from that what you will!

Then, on Wednesday, legendary Democratic donor George Clooney wrote a biting op-ed calling for Biden to step down for the sake of democracy. (This, of course, after Clooney previously clashed with Biden over the administration’s dismissiveness of a report by his human rights attorney wife, Amal, detailing Israeli officials’ war crimes against Gaza.) In the op-ed, Clooney recounted the recent fundraiser he hosted for Biden in June, and claimed that, unfortunately, the Biden he saw that night “was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

The aftermath of Clooney’s call for Biden to drop out has been as explosive as the op-ed itself. The political rumor mill has been working overtime this past week, and Clooney’s closeness with former President Obama, reports of an ongoing Cold War between the Obama and Biden camps, and high-profile former Obama staffers vocally expressing their concerns with Biden have propelled 44 into the rotten center of this mess. And, because he can’t handle things not being about him for even five minutes, former President Trump weighed in on the Clooney op-ed too. 

Surprisingly, both Biden and Trump opted to take shots at Clooney—Biden, likely to defend his honor and presidential fitness, and Trump, probably because he sees Biden as a uniquely weak opponent and does not want him to step down. In a statement to the New York Times, Biden’s campaign suggested Clooney is the one with a fitness problem: “The President stayed for over three hours, while Clooney took a photo quickly and left,” they said in a statement about Biden and Clooney’s interactions at the fundraiser. Late Wednesday evening, Trump reacted to Clooney’s piece in a rambling Truth Social post: “What does Clooney know about anything? … Clooney should get out of politics and go back to television. Movies never really worked for him!!!” This, of course, ignores two things—first, that Clooney has actually been heavily involved in politics for decades, and second, that he’s literally won an Oscar.

And if Obama wished to be excluded from this narrative, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough had a different plan, starting his Thursday Morning Joe show with speculation about Obama’s potential role in the Clooney op-ed. “The Biden campaign and many Democratic officials do believe that Barack Obama is quietly working behind the scenes to orchestrate this,” Scarborough—who’s famously friends with Biden—said. He added that Biden remains “deeply resentful of his treatment under not only the Obama staff but also the way he was pushed aside for Hillary Clinton” in 2016. 

Additional reporting from Politico on Thursday only poured gasoline on the open fire. Per the outlet, Obama and Clooney spoke before he wrote the op-ed, and “while Obama did not encourage or advise Clooney to say what he said, he also didn’t object to it, people familiar with their exchange said.” A representative for the former president declined to comment on or deny this version of events for Politico’s story.

It’s also raising eyebrows that some of the most impactful calls for Biden to step down have come from famous Obama staffers, like long-time senior adviser David Axelrod, who also wrote a weekend op-ed. The Pod Save America bros have also spent the better part of this week sharing Biden’s dire polling and criticizing the Biden campaign’s dismissive response to questions and criticism. In a lengthy post largely praising Biden’s character and record, Jon Lovett characterized the president’s recent behavior in the face of serious concerns about his electability as “arrogant and small.” Tommy Vietor and Jon Favreau then appeared on a new episode of Jon Stewart’s Weekly Show podcast on Thursday, in which Stewart excoriates how the Biden team has handled concerns, comparing the current president to Trump, and Vietor and Favreau largely agree.

Importantly, Biden has long denied any tension or resentment between him and Obama; earlier this year, the White House told Axios that “the Biden and Obama families are like family to one other.” Reports about their closed-door interactions paint a slightly different portrait: In 2020, Politico reported that Obama “was not encouraging” of Biden running for president at all. Axios has reported that Biden and Obama don’t speak very often, but that Biden talks about his Democratic predecessor a lot, frequently comparing their legacies and holding on to past frustrations about being overlooked. 

Again, Biden’s camp has denied all of this. But Clooney’s op-ed, Biden’s visibly strained support among Democratic Party leaders and donors, and Thursday’s Morning Joe gossip have brought the alleged Obama-Biden Cold War back to the forefront. If this were an episode of West Wing or Veep, I would admittedly be seated. Unfortunately, the stakes for our rights are existential, and, as twistedly entertaining as a Trump-Biden-Clooney-Obama feud may be, I don’t think any of us are really helped by four exorbitantly rich and powerful men shit-talking and gossiping about each other.

 
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