Biden didn't recognize George Clooney at fundraiser: New book
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
George Clooney and Joe Biden in 2022. Photo: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former President Biden had to be repeatedly reminded that the movie star he was speaking with at a June 2024 fundraiser was his longtime friend George Clooney, according to a forthcoming book by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson.
Why it matters: Clooney and Biden had known each other for two decades before the high-profile California fundraiser. But Biden's "diminished" physical appearance was a "holy sh*t" moment for Clooney, who hadn't seen Biden since 2022, according to an excerpt of the book published Tuesday by the New Yorker.
- For Clooney and many other Democratic supporters of the president, Biden's appearance was a jarring sign of his physical and mental decline just before Biden's disastrous debate performance that would lead him to drop his bid for re-election.
"You know George," the book quotes an aide telling Biden when he saw Clooney.
- "George Clooney," the aide had to clarify after it seemed obvious Biden hadn't realized which George.
- "Oh, yeah!" Biden said, per the book. "Hi, George!"
"Clooney was shaken to his core," the authors write. "The president hadn't recognized him, a man he had known for years."
- "Clooney had expressed concern about Biden's health before. A White House aide had told him a few months before that they were working on getting the president to take longer steps when he walked — but obviously the problem went far beyond his gait."
- "This was much graver." Tapper and Thompson report, adding that others at the fundraiser described Biden as "slow and almost catatonic. ... It was, to some of them, terrifying."
Zoom in: "Original Sin," which publishes May 20, is based on interviews with more than 200 people, mostly Democratic insiders, with knowledge of the events that unfolded during the final two years of Biden's presidency.
- Almost all of the interviews took place after the 2024 election.
Zoom out: Clooney's op-ed after Biden's shocking appearance during his debate against Donald Trump later in June was a major moment in the president's exit from the 2024 presidential race weeks later.
- "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," Clooney wrote in the July 2024 column.
The bottom line: "It was like watching someone who was not alive," a Hollywood V.I.P. told Tapper and Thompson about Biden's appearance at the fundraiser.
- "It was startling. And we all looked at each other. It was so awful."
This story is adapted from the forthcoming book "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson.
