George Clooney calls on Biden to drop out of presidential race weeks after co-hosting fundraiser: 'He cannot win'

Oscar-winning actor George Clooney called on President Biden to end his campaign for re-election Wednesday, saying the 81-year-old incumbent “cannot win.”

Clooney made the call for a new candidate in an op-ed published in The New York Times, less than a month after he co-hosted a Biden fundraiser that raised some $30 million.

However, the receipts were overshadowed by Biden freezing up during the event and having to be escorted offstage by former President Barack Obama.

The president and his predecessor sat for an interview with ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel and as the men rose afterward, Biden’s gaze appeared fixed on the applauding crowd for a full 10 seconds until Obama took his wrist and guided him offstage. 

The “Syriana” star added that “I love Joe Biden. As a senator. As a vice president and as president. I consider him a friend, and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals.”

“But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time,” Clooney went on. “None of us can.” 

“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010,” he added. “He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

The staunch Democrat also called out party leaders on Capitol Hill, who Clooney said “need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw” at the CNN debate June 27.

“We are not going to win in November with this president,” the actor bluntly said.

“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. Every single one, irrespective of what he or she is saying publicly.”

So far, only eight House Democrats have publicly called for Biden to end his 2024 campaign, with others taking a wait-and-see-approach or standing firmly behind the president.

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However, Clooney insisted Wednesday that “[t]he dam has broken. We can put our heads in the sand and pray for a miracle in November, or we can speak the truth.

“It is disingenuous, at best, to argue that Democrats have already spoken with their vote and therefore the nomination is settled and done, when we just received new and upsetting information,” the actor added in a clear response to Biden’s defiant Monday morning letter to Democrats insisting he would stay in the race.

“Top Democrats — Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi — and senators, representatives and other candidates who face losing in November need to ask this president to voluntarily step aside,” Clooney insisted.

The Times reported Wednesday that the Biden campaign had found out about Clooney’s op-ed before it was published and tried to persuade him to change his mind.

According to the outlet, Biden campaign co-chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg — the former head of Disney and DreamWorks — led the unsuccessful effort.

Clooney is not the only Hollywood bundler taking issue with Biden’s insistence on staying in the race. 

Last week, Abigail Disney, the grand-niece of studio patriarch Walt Disney, told CNBC she would not give any more to Democrats as long as Biden remained on the ticket.

“This is realism, not disrespect. Biden is a good man and has served his country admirably, but the stakes are far too high,” Disney, 64, said at the time.

“If Biden does not step down, the Democrats will lose. Of that I am absolutely certain. The consequences for the loss will be genuinely dire.”

Meanwhile, at least one fundraiser scheduled during next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago has been canceled due to worries about the president’s political future, CNN reported Wednesday.

A DNC rep told The Post that the fundraiser was not theirs, and “is a host committee for a fundraising event occurring the week of the convention.”