Former President Barack Obama’s ex-aides and prominent pals have become the loudest voices pushing President Biden to withdraw from the 2024 race, even as their old boss publicly backs his vice president.
David Axelrod, John Favreau, Ben Rhodes and Tommy Vietor are among the top former Obama aides gunning for Mr. Biden to exit. They took their message to social media and television talk shows this week as the president battles to prove his fitness while leading a critical NATO summit in Washington.
The “Obama bros,” as some of Mr. Obama’s old team has been labeled, attacked Mr. Biden on the airwaves and social media Wednesday as they promoted a New York Times opinion piece authored by one of the former president’s most famous friends, actor George Clooney, calling for Mr. Biden to withdraw from the race.
Mr. Clooney’s devastating piece, which cites Mr. Biden’s catastrophic debate performance on June 27, was published just weeks after the movie star and Mr. Obama helped the 81-year-old president raise $30 million at a Hollywood gala.
It was followed by a cascade of other Hollywood elites calling for Mr. Biden to step aside.
“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,” Mr. Clooney wrote. “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.”
Mr. Clooney said he witnessed Mr. Biden’s cognitive decline up close at the fundraiser. The president, he said, “was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
The same June 16 Hollywood fundraiser concluded with a video of Mr. Obama, who socializes and vacations with Mr. Clooney, leading a frail-appearing Mr. Biden off the stage after the president inexplicably froze up.
Obama’s old White House team doubled down on Mr. Clooney’s assessment on Wednesday.
Mr. Axelrod, a former top Obama advisor, and Mr. Favreau, Mr. Obama’s former speechwriter, appeared together on CNN to affirm Mr. Clooney’s claim that the president’s mental fitness appeared to be in decline.
“Every single person I talked to at the fundraiser thought the same thing, except for the people working for Joe Biden, or at least they didn’t say that,” Mr. Favreau revealed, calling for Mr. Biden to step aside.
Mr. Axelrod called Mr. Clooney’s assessment “devastating,” and he said many Democrats had reached the point where they believe the risk of leaving Mr. Biden on the ticket “eclipses” the risk of replacing him.
As for Mr. Obama, he has publicly remained silent about his former vice president after issuing a vague statement in support of Mr. Biden following his debate fumble.
“Bad debate nights happen. Trust me, I know. But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself,” Mr. Obama said, adding that “so much is at stake in November.”
While Mr. Obama held back any public criticism, his old White House team battered Mr. Biden on social media.
“You can’t say that the future of American democracy is at stake and then tell anyone concerned about the debate last night to stop bed wetting or grow a spine,” former Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor posted on X. It’s f—ng insulting to people who care deeply about the country and know how much is on the line.”
Ben Rhodes, Mr. Obama’s former national security advisor, posted on X, “Just think about what that debate looked like to people and leaders around the world.”
The Obama world is pressuring Mr. Biden to withdraw from the ticket as some of the ex-president’s strongest allies on Capitol Hill hold back on endorsing Mr. Biden during the NATO summit.
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a longtime ally of Mr. Obama’s, said Wednesday Mr. Biden should get through the NATO summit and then reconsider his plans to run for reelection.
“It’s up to the president to decide if he is going to run. We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short,” Mrs. Pelosi said on MSNBC. “Let’s just hold off, until we see how we go this week.”
Mr. Biden has vigorously pushed back against efforts to dump him from the ticket, writing to Capitol Hill Democrats this week that he has no plans to withdraw.
He has largely executed his leadership of the NATO summit without major gaffes and has appeared energetic and coherent.
Mr. Biden read from a script without any hiccups at the start of a workshop with NATO world leaders on Wednesday and addressed national union leaders at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington without big slipups.
A packed schedule Thursday will culminate in a critical press conference, his first since the debate.
Mr. Axelrod said Mrs. Pelosi and other Democratic leaders are going to try to push out Mr. Biden, in part because polls show his low approval ratings threaten to cause major losses for House and Senate Democrats on the ballot in November.
“What she is saying delicately and respectfully is that the discussion isn’t over, and we need to have this discussion,” Mr. Axelrod said.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.