‘We’re not going to win with this president’: Clooney calls on Biden to end campaign • FRANCE 24

‘We’re not going to win with this president’: Clooney calls on Biden to end campaign • FRANCE 24

US President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign appeared to hit new trouble on Wednesday as a Democratic senator called on the president to withdraw from the race becoming the first to do so meanwhile celebrity donor George Clooney also urged Biden to abandon his reelection bid in a damning opinion piece for the New York Times Clooney said the president was not the same man he was in 2020 and in an interview with MSNBC former house speaker and Biden Ally Nancy Pelosi said he should quickly decide whether he wants to run declining to definitively say what her opinion was for the last 2 weeks 81-year-old Biden has sought to reassure Democratic lawmakers donors and other allies after his poor performance in a debate with Donald Trump raised fresh concerns over his physical and mental Fitness well for more we can cross live to our Washington correspondent Fraser Jackson Fraser can Biden then survive all of these latest developments well I think the opad from George Clooney was an interesting thing because people will say well he’s just a Hollywood actor but he’s also quite a big Democratic donor he had a fundraiser during which he saw Joe Biden that fundraiser raised $28 million for Joe Biden but it it did have a bit of a bad performance from the President George Clooney in this opet saying it’s devastating to say it but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe big effing deal Biden of 2010 he wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020 he was the same man with we all witnessed at the debate now the White House will say that this was around the same time that that debate took place it was after Joe Biden had been back and forth to Europe twice and then went back again uh in 9 hours in time zone back to Los Angeles so they will say that he was jetlagged he was tired and more than likely he had that cold that he was complaining about as well but nevertheless that doesn’t do much to assuage concerns of the democratic uh party voters and indeed you know the rest of the electorates perhaps the most uh consequ itial thing for Joe Biden’s election bid however will be those Democratic lawmakers so far we’ve heard a lot from people in the house Democrats um who have you know raised their concerns Joe Biden not that concerned about those people at the moment but what will start uh changing the needle perhaps is the Democratic senators Nancy Pelosi is a longtime friend of Joe Biden they’ve known each other for decades she hasn’t come out in full throat of opposition to him she hasn’t said one way or another which way she wants Joe Biden to to fall she just said I want him to do whatever he decides to do but Joe Biden has already said that he’s going to run uh so that in itself uh speaks volumes uh I think what will really be the tell here is if Joe Biden loses the support of Chuck Schumer uh in the Senate as well as Hakim jeffre the leader of the Democrats in the house uh that will be when really his his um election uh bid will be uh no more I think that’s when it will lose its legs if he loses those people Joe Biden’s trying to secure the um the campaign is is trying to have um they’re trying to show up support in the Senate they’re having a meeting with Democrats in the Senate on Thursday to try to make sure that people rally around the president and circle the wagons around him as well and as we’ve been reporting this comes amid uh the NATO Summit which is underway in DC how is the president using this to reassure his allies well all eyes really are on this NATO Summit to see that Joe Biden can act on the world stage and still has the the you know the mental accurity to to to be there on the world stage with these leaders and all eyes really are going to be on the press conference that he’s giving on Thursday around 5:30 local time is when Joe Biden will give this press conference this has been something that has been bigged up by the White House as a quote Big Boy press conference uh that was a joke that my colleague Justin sing from Bloomberg used in the Press briefing the White House kind of ran with it but it’s kind of come back to bite the White House a little bit now I think so people think that joke is slightly inappropriate but it is going to be one of the larger press conferences that Joe Biden has given in quite some time we’re expecting about six or seven people to be giving him questions during that time uh the questions um will you know range across a whole uh wide range of subjects but more than likely his mental accurity and whether he’s staying in the race will be top of mind for most people uh so really that is going to be a big thing to look out for Joe Biden probably will try to go over his NATO achievements what he’s achieved in time his time in office some people want him to take more of an opportunity to bash Donald Trump whether he does that at at NATO Summit remains to be seen some people think that also might be an inappropriate Forum to to do that kind of thing but he’s also got interview on Monday with Lester H from ABC from NBC uh so if he h does do that special the prime time special that could perhaps be a better forum for him to really go after Donald Trump and get on the on the offensive instead of being on the defensive uh for the last two weeks all right Fraser and you’ll be keeping an eye on those events as they happen in Washington DC Fraser thank you okay

Movie star George Clooney, a vocal supporter of the Democratic Party, called Wednesday on Joe Biden to leave the presidential race, joining a growing list of public figures concerned over the US president’s catastrophic debate performance last month. “This isn’t only my opinion; this is the opinion of every senator and congress member and governor that I’ve spoken with in private,” wrote Clooney in a New York Times opinion piece.

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