O-He Knew: Obama Spoke to Clooney Before Bombshell Demand for Biden to Drop Out — but Didn’t Object

Former president Barack Obama knew about George Clooney's demand for President Joe Biden to drop out of the 2024 race against Donald Trump before the bombshell op-ed ran — but didn't try to stop it, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

Politico reports that Clooney reached out to give Obama a heads up beforehand. Sources familiar with the exchange told the outlet that Biden's former boss didn't encourage the move, but he also didn't object to it.

Obama, who was one of the first major voices defending the president from calls to step aside following the disastrous debate, attended a glitzy Los Angeles fundraiser for Biden alongside Clooney less than a month ago.

The Hollywood star, who has gone from playboy to political power-player in the years since his marriage to international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, penned a devastating New York Times piece on Wednesday arguing that the Democrats should choose a new nominee.

"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-ing 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."

"We are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate ... The dam has broken. We can put our heads in the sand and pray for a miracle in November, or we can speak the truth."

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Biden's campaign clapped back at the actor by claiming that Clooney dipped out early from the June 15 Biden fundraiser he co-hosted. "The President stayed for over three hours, while Clooney took a photo quickly and left," the president's team said in a statement.

"Clearly, the gloves are off," CNN's Kayla Tausche commented. "The point of that is to suggest that Biden’s stamina is better than Clooney's and Clooney didn’t have eyes on the entire event. That's the response to the Clooney op-ed."

Clooney's brief attendance might have had something to do with the fact that his wife Amal refused to come after Biden criticized her for issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which led Clooney to call the White House to complain.