Washington: US President Joe Biden bounced back on Wednesday when actor and leading Democratic supporter George Clooney called on him to drop his re-election bid, while party heavyweight Nancy Pelosi refused to endorse his candidacy.
As the 81-year-old tried to show his leadership skills at the NATO summit in Washington, domestic pressure mounted on Biden to quit after his disastrous debate performance against Republican challenger Donald Trump.
Biden sought to stem the growing tide of Democrats who said he could not win in November, but Clooney’s surprise intervention thwarted efforts to turn the page on the crisis.
The Hollywood star wrote a scathing op-ed in the New York Times just three weeks after co-hosting a huge fundraiser in Los Angeles that raised nearly $30 million for Biden.
“He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all saw at the debate.”
At a June 15 fundraiser in Los Angeles co-hosted by Clooney and fellow movie star Julia Roberts, Biden appeared tired as he took the stage alongside former President Barack Obama.
He flew straight to California from the G7 summit in Italy and has since blamed jetlag and a cold for his disastrous performance in a televised debate with Donald Trump on June 27.
In response to Clooney’s editorial, the Biden campaign pointed to the president’s statement Monday that he is “committed” to running again in November.
He has been media-shy for much of his presidency, and Biden will also give a new interview to NBC on Monday as he tries to convince voters.
But while top Democrats broadly but unenthusiastically endorsed him on Tuesday, Biden’s efforts to stem the bleeding increasingly appeared futile.
Former House Speaker Pelosi, 86, has been lukewarm on his candidacy, telling MSNBC “it’s up to the president to decide whether he’s going to run.”
“We’re all encouraging him to make a decision because time is running out,” she said, despite Biden’s repeated pledges last week to stay in the race.
Pelosi said Biden should delay any final decision until after the 75th anniversary NATO summit in Washington, which will conclude with a closely watched news conference by the president on Thursday.
French President Emmanuel Macron, himself under pressure after calling an inconclusive snap election, embraced the elderly man on stage and shook his hand firmly.
Biden, who delivered a forceful speech pledging new air defenses for Ukraine at the start of the summit on Tuesday, made it through his opening remarks with only a few verbal stumbles.
At least eight House Democrats have openly urged Biden not to seek re-election, with New York Congressman Pat Ryan jumping ship on Wednesday.
Michael Bennet of Colorado on Tuesday became the first Senate Democrat to publicly address the president, saying Biden would lose if he remained on the ballot.
“I think Donald Trump is on track to win this election and possibly win it by a landslide and take the Senate and the House with him,” Bennet told CNN.
Meanwhile, former President Trump, 78, is back on the warpath after a long hiatus from public events following the June 27 debate.
Republicans also turned the screw, with the House Oversight Committee, which the party controls, issuing subpoenas for three top White House aides to testify about Biden’s health, the news site Axios reported.
Clooney and Democrats pile pressure on Biden
