Joe Biden's failure to recognize George Clooney at fundraiser left star ‘shaken to his core’, book claims

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Joe Biden apparently had a major memory lapse in front of Hollywood megastar George Clooney.

In a jaw-dropping moment at a high-profile Democratic fundraiser in Los Angeles last June, the former president reportedly didn’t recognize Clooney.

The shocking scene is laid bare in the upcoming book 'Original Sin' by journalists Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper, who spill the tea on what they call the White House’s attempts to keep Biden’s cognitive decline under wraps.

According to an excerpt obtained by the New York Post, “It was obvious to many standing there that the president did not know who George Clooney was. Clooney was shaken to his core. The president hadn’t recognized him. A man he had known for years.”

It all went down on June 13, 2024, during a star-studded event that Clooney actually co-hosted. But when Biden showed up, the scene was anything but glamorous.

The book describes how a “severely diminished” Biden hobbled into the venue with an aide holding him by the arm, as he robotically thanked guests one by one. Clooney, who helped raise millions for Biden, watched in disbelief.

“Clooney felt a knot form in his stomach as the president approached him,” the authors write.

George Clooney was shocked at Joe Biden's decline

When Biden reached Clooney, it was clear something was off. He didn’t greet him by name. Instead, an aide had to remind the president who he was standing in front of. 

“’You know George,’ the assisting aide told the president,” the excerpt reveals. “'Yeah, yeah,’ the president said to one of the most recognizable men in the world and host of this lucrative fundraiser. ‘Thank you for being here.’”

Biden finally registered it when the aide clarified that it was “George Clooney." He remarked, “Oh, yeah … Hi, George!”

Clooney had already been quietly worried about Biden’s health, according to the book. “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,” the authors detailed.

“This was much graver,” the authors wrote. “This was the president of the United States?”

At that point, Clooney hadn’t seen Biden since December 2022 - and the rapid decline was stunning.

A VIP witness in the room recounted the episode. “It was like watching someone who was not alive,” they said. “It was startling. And we all looked at each other. It was so awful.”

“It was not okay,” they added of the exchange. “That thing, the moment where you recognize someone you know — especially a famous person who’s doing a f**king fundraiser for you — it was delayed. It was uncomfortable.”

From raising money for Joe Biden to George Clooney asking him to step aside

Less than a month after that awkward exchange, Clooney — who helped raise a staggering $30 million at that very event — went public with his concerns.

On July 10, Clooney dropped a bombshell op-ed in The New York Times, pleading for Biden to step aside. 

“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**king deal’ Biden of 2010,” Clooney wrote. “He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

Clooney didn’t sugarcoat anything. “We are not going to win in November with this president," he wrote. This wasn’t just a rant from a frustrated celeb. It was part of a broader panic among top Democratic donors and strategists after Biden’s disastrous debate performance against now-President Donald Trump on June 27, 2024.

Clooney’s op-ed infuriated Biden’s inner circle. According to 'Original Sin', Clooney had written the op-ed while relaxing at his place in the south of France, and passed it to Biden's adviser Steve Ricchetti through movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg.

“Ricchetti read it and was furious,” the book claims. “Internally, he threatened to shut Clooney down — some of his colleagues thought he sounded like a Mob boss.”

Even Katzenberg, who had personally invited Clooney to co-host the now-infamous fundraiser, pushed back against the actor’s take that Biden had been “the same man we all witnessed at the debate” at the donor event a fortnight earlier.

“'It’s not fair, what you’re saying,' Katzenberg said,” Thompson and Tapper wrote. “'You’re right, it’s not fair,' Clooney agreed. Aging was awful. It really wasn’t fair. But, Clooney said, 'it’s accurate.'”

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