Biden didn’t recognize this megastar — and huge supporter — in shocking memory lapse that left celeb ‘shaken to his core’
A rapidly aging Joe Biden couldn’t even recognize George Clooney at a Democratic fundraiser in Los Angeles during the 2024 campaign — leaving the Hollywood star “shaken to his core,” a bombshell new book claims.
The troubling incident, which unfolded at a June 13, 2024, star-studded fundraiser co-hosted by Clooney, was laid bare in the forthcoming book “Original Sin” by Alex Thompson and Jake Tapper, which chronicles the attempt to cover up Biden’s decline while in office.
“It was obvious to many standing there that the president did not know who George Clooney was,” the authors wrote, according to an excerpt obtained by The Post.
“Clooney was shaken to his core. The president hadn’t recognized him. A man he had known for years.”
The book detailed how a “severely diminished” Biden, then 81 years old, had hobbled into the event with an aide guiding him by the arm — with the president repeatedly thanking guests as he walked by.
“Clooney felt a knot form in his stomach as the president approached him,” the authors wrote of the embarrassing encounter.
When Biden reached Clooney, the aide gently reminded the president of the star’s name — despite the pair having known each other personally for almost two decades.
“’You know George,’ the assisting aide told the president,” according to the excerpt.
“’Yeah, yeah,’ the president said to one of the most recognizable men in the world and host of this lucrative fundraiser. ‘Thank you for being here.’”
After the aide clarified that it was “George Clooney” in front of him, the prez responded: “Oh, yeah … Hi, George!”
“Clooney had expressed concern about Biden’s health before — a White House aide had told him a few months before that they were working on getting the president to take longer steps when he walked — but obviously the problem went far beyond his gait,” the authors detailed.
“This was much graver. This was the president of the United States?”
Clooney, who hadn’t seen Biden personally since December 2022, was taken aback by the president’s rapid decline, the book claims.
A Hollywood VIP who witnessed the encounter described it as “startling” and “not okay.”
“It was like watching someone who was not alive,” the person recalled, according to the excerpt. “It was startling. And we all looked at each other. It was so awful.”
“It was not okay,” they added of the Clooney exchange. “That thing, the moment where you recognize someone you know — especially a famous person who’s doing a f—ing fundraiser for you — it was delayed. It was uncomfortable.”
Fewer than four weeks later, Clooney — who co-hosted the event that ended up raising some $30 million — publicly called for the then-commander-in-chief to drop out of the race.
In a scathing July 10 New York Times op-ed, Clooney had declared that Biden “cannot win” the election following his catastrophic June 27, 2024, debate performance against Donald Trump.
“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 at the time.
“He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
Clooney — a staunch Democrat — then bluntly declared: “We are not going to win in November with this president.”
Thompson and Tapper reported that Clooney wrote the op-ed at his home in the South of France and passed it to Biden adviser Steve Ricchetti via movie producer Jeffrey Katzenberg.
“Ricchetti read it and was furious,” the authors write. “Internally, he threatened to shut Clooney down—some of his colleagues thought he sounded like a Mob boss.”
Katzenberg, who had asked Clooney to co-host the fundraiser, objected to the actor’s take that Biden had been “the same man we all witnessed at the debate” at the donor event two weeks earlier.
“It’s not fair, what you’re saying, Katzenberg said,” according to Thompson and Tapper. “You’re right, it’s not fair, Clooney agreed. Aging was awful. It really wasn’t fair. But, Clooney said, it’s accurate.”
