Former US President Joseph Biden did not recognize George Clooney when he arrived at a donor dinner in June 2024, which the famous actor was one of the hosts, according to a book signed by CNN's Jake Tepper and Axios' Alex Thompson.
Backstage, before the dinner began, Clooney greeted the president, who had just returned from a three-day trip from Italy, where he attended the G7 summit. The president appeared “seriously weakened, as if he had aged ten years since Clooney last saw him in December 2022,” the authors wrote in an excerpt from the book published Tuesday in The New Yorker.
“You know George,” the aide said to the president, reminding him who was in front of him.
"Yes, yes," the president replied to one of the most recognizable people in the world. "Thank you for being here."
“It seemed clear that the president did not recognize Clooney,” Tepper and Thompson state.
The published excerpt is from the book "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, His Cover-Up, and His Doomsday Decision to Run Again," which is due out on May 20. The book is based on more than 200 interviews, mostly with people from the inner circles of the Democratic Party, the vast majority of which were conducted after the 2024 election, CNN reported.
Biden's apparent inability to recognize Clooney was one of the most obvious signs of his physical and mental decline in the final year of his term, which ultimately led to his decision to drop out of the race for reelection after a disastrous televised debate with Republican Donald Trump in June.
“It wasn’t a straight line decline, he had his ups and downs. But until the last day of his term, Biden and those in his inner circle refused to acknowledge the reality that his energy, cognitive abilities, and communication skills had significantly declined. Worse, they tried in various ways to cover it up,” the authors write.
The fundraising dinner with Clooney took place on June 15, less than two weeks before the debate. Clooney, Tepper and Thompson say, was “shaken to the core” by meeting a man he had known for years.
This meeting helped explain Clooney's motive for publishing an op-ed less than a month later calling on Biden to withdraw from the presidential race.
Until the last day of his term, Biden and his inner circle refused to acknowledge the reality that his energy, cognitive abilities, and communication skills had significantly declined. Worse, they tried in various ways to cover it up.
The actor was shocked by a letter Biden released on July 8, in which he insisted he was staying in the race. He reached out to former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, to tell him he was considering writing a column, the authors said.
"Obama advised him not to do so, warning that it would make Biden even more stubbornly stay in the race," the excerpt states.
After writing the draft, Clooney showed it to Jeffrey Katzenberg, a major Democratic donor who organized a fundraising dinner in June, and told him to forward it to Biden's longtime associate Steve Ricchetti, the authors write.
"Ricchetti read it and was furious," Tepper and Thompson say. "Within the team, he threatened to silence Clooney - some of his associates thought he sounded like a mob boss."
According to the excerpt, Katzenberg told Clooney that he disagreed with his assessment of Biden because the president was exhausted from a long trip and time zone change that evening. He told him that he doubted the comment would have the desired effect. Katzenberg wanted Clooney to remove the line that said Biden at the dinner was “the same man we all watched during the debate.” He thought it was “not fair.”
“You’re right, it’s not fair,” Clooney agreed. “Aging is awful. It’s really not fair,” the authors write. “But,” Clooney added, “what I wrote is true.”
Clooney's op-ed was published in the New York Times in July under the headline: "I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Candidate."
"We will not win in November with this president," Clooney wrote. "That's not just my opinion; it's the opinion of every senator, congressman and governor I've spoken to privately. Every single one of them, regardless of what they say publicly."
Biden and his wife, Jill, defended his presidential performance in a joint interview on ABC's The View earlier this month, rejecting claims that his cognitive abilities had declined during his final year in office.
“The people who wrote those books weren’t in the White House with us and they didn’t see how hard Joe worked every day,” Jill Biden said. “He would get up, work all day, and then at night, while I was in bed reading a book, he would still be on the phone, reading reports, working with the staff. Literally nonstop.”
The excerpt from the book includes other details about concerns within the Democratic Party about Biden's health ahead of the June debate. The same night that the dinner with Clooney took place, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke at a wedding about his concerns about the debate.
“One wedding guest, who was sitting at Schumer's table, recalled saying, 'If things go wrong at the debate, me, Barack, Nancy, and Hakim have a plan B,' although Schumer later denied this,” the authors state.
“Biden has ruined so many of us as a party,” David Plough, a former senior Obama campaign aide who took over running Kamala Harris’ campaign after Biden withdrew, told the book’s authors.
“And it’s all because of Biden,” Plaf said. Deciding to run for reelection and then waiting more than three weeks after the debate to withdraw, Plaf added: “He totally screwed us over.”
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