George Clooney helped cover up Biden's decline — all while Biden didn't even recognize him: Book

George Clooney was shocked when President Joe Biden did not recognize him at a 2024 fundraiser despite Clooney being one of the hosts of the event.

A June 15, 2024, star-studded fundraiser hosted by Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Barack Obama pulled in a whopping $28 million for the Biden campaign. Fans took pictures with the celebrities while late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was set to host Obama and President Biden on stage for a Q and A.

However, just a few weeks later, Clooney did a complete 180 turn and wrote an op-ed in the New York Times calling for the president to step down. In his piece titled "I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee," the actor said the Biden he saw at the fundraiser was not the "Biden of 2010. He wasn't even the Joe Biden of 2020."

Clooney added that he and others held their tongue about Biden's obvious decline because they were "all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term."

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A new book by CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson purportedly revealed the details of Biden and Clooney's interaction that caused the actor to do an about-face on the president's re-election campaign.

George Clooney shakes President Joe Biden's hand after receiving a lifetime artistic achievement award in 2022. Photographer: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images

'It was like watching someone who was not alive.'

According to an excerpt from the book provided to the New Yorker, Biden hobbled into the fundraising event after flying in from the G7 summit in Apulia, Italy, that morning.

The president allegedly appeared severely diminished as if he'd aged a decade since last seeing Clooney at the White House in 2022, when the actor received recognition from the John F. Kennedy Center. Biden was reportedly taking tiny steps and was seemingly guided by an aide.

"It was like watching someone who was not alive," an unnamed source claimed. "It was startling. And we all looked at each other. It was so awful."

Biden began to pass Clooney and said, "Thank you for being here."

"Hi, Mr. President," Clooney reportedly replied in greeting.

"How are ya?" Biden replied.

Clooney apparently then asked the president how his trip had gone, but it seemed clear by Biden's generic "it was fine" reaction that he did not recognize Clooney, one of the hosts of his own fundraiser who he had met many times before.

The inside source described Clooney as being shaken to his core, although he was not the only person who noticed the president's declined cognitive function. Biden reportedly had obvious brain freezes at the event and what were referred to as clear signs of a mental slide.

RELATED: George Clooney laments sale of 'mom-and-pop' shop Paramount

John F. Trent, editor for Fandom Pulse, said the new Biden revelations seemed to be a way for those who were running cover for the president's decline to give penance.

"Anyone who had eyes to see could tell Joe Biden's mental capabilities had completely declined," Trent told Blaze News.

In fact, Tapper and Clooney both congratulated each other for their work on the topic. In an interview on CNN, after Clooney praised the bravery of journalists for "setting a standard," the anchor told Clooney he felt the actor's op-ed asking Biden to step down was "brave."

"I don't know if it was brave," Clooney replied. "It was a civic duty. ... The specific idea of [freedom of speech] is, you can't demand freedom of speech then say, 'You can't say bad things about me.'"

The 64-year-old concluded, "That's the deal. You have to take a stand if you believe in it."

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