Joe Biden Didn’t Recognize George Clooney At Fundraiser Actor Hosted For Him In ’24

Like Love Haha Wow Sad Angry

Alessio AtriaMay 16, 2025, 5:55 pmNews >

President Joe Biden failed to recognize George Clooney during a fundraiser he hosted for him last year.

On June 15, 2024, Clooney co-hosted a record-breaking $28 million fundraiser for Biden in Los Angeles.

According to an excerpt of the new book Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, written by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson, the then-president “appeared severely diminished” during the event.

Tapper and Thompson wrote in the excerpt that Biden looked “as if he’d aged a decade since Clooney last saw him, in December 2022.

“He was taking tiny steps, and an aide seemed to be guiding him by the arm.

“It was like watching someone who was not alive,” one Hollywood V.I.P. recounted, according to the excerpt. “It was startling. And we all looked at each other. It was so awful.”

“Thank you for being here,” Biden told guests as he walked past them. “Thank you for being here.”

The authors mentioned, “Clooney felt a knot form in his stomach as the President approached him.”

“Thank you for being here,” Biden said as he looked at the actor. “Thank you for being here.”

“You know George,” the assisting aide said to Biden, as if to remind him who Clooney was.

“Yeah, yeah,” the then-president stated. “Thank you for being here.”

“Hi, Mr. President,” Clooney said to him.

“How are ya”? Biden responded.

“How was your trip”? The actor asked him.

“It was fine,” the then-president told him.

Tapper and Thompson noted it was “clear that the President had not recognized Clooney.”

“George Clooney,” the aide told Biden.

“Oh, yeah,” Biden stated. “Hi, George!”

“It was not OK,” the Hollywood V.I.P. who witnessed this moment stated. “That thing, the moment where you recognize someone you know, especially a famous person who’s doing a f—ing fundraiser for you – it was delayed. It was uncomfortable.”

One month after the fundraiser, Clooney wrote a guest essay published on July 10, 2024, in The New York Times in which he declared that Biden was “too old to seek re-election” and could not win “the fight against time.”

In February, during an interview with The Times, the actor accused the media of not accurately reporting Biden’s mental capacities.