CNN’s Jake Tapper questioned the Biden campaign’s claim that the president has better stamina than actor George Clooney after a critical op-ed.
President Biden received extra scrutiny on Wednesday after Clooney’s New York Times guest essay said that Biden has significantly declined and should step down.
"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 wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate," Clooney wrote about a recent Hollywood fundraiser for the president.
CNN White House correspondent Kayla Tausche reported that, according to a Biden campaign official, it was Clooney who apparently lacked stamina.
"Biden aides point to an aggressive travel schedule in the coming weeks. He’s set to go to Michigan on Friday, Nevada next week, as well as an aggressive fundraising schedule with events planned in Texas and Colorado and two in California as proof that he is not going anywhere," Tausche said.
She added, "And in response to those comments from George Cooney, Jake, a campaign official who attended that Los Angeles fundraiser tells me that George Clooney left three hours before the president. So clearly the gloves are off."
After a pause, Tapper asked, "What does that mean, George Clooney left three hours earlier? What‘s the point?"
Tausche responded, "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."
"Okay," Tapper responded with raised eyebrows and what sounded like a chuckle.
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The fundraiser Clooney referenced was the site of the infamous viral video that showed former President Obama grabbing Biden by the wrist to help guide the president off a stage.
At the time, several media outlets, along with the White House, suggested the clip and others like it were "cheap fakes."
"It's also very insulting to the folks, the viewers who are watching it. And so we believe we have to call that out. We've been calling it ‘cheap fakes.’ That is something that came directly from the media outlets in calling it that, the fact-checkers and calling it that. And so we're certainly going to be really, really clear about that as well. And calling it out from where we are, from where we stand," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace in June.
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Clooney joins a growing list of Hollywood elites and megadonors who've turned on Biden following the debate, where his halting, frail and at times confused performance alarmed supporters. Members of Biden's party, political allies and liberal media figures have also pressured the president to drop out of the race, warning he cannot beat former President Trump.
