In a new book titled, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, the journalists allege that the former president didn’t recognize George Clooney during a Democratic fundraiser in June 2024.
The star-studded event was hosted by Clooney, 64, and actress Julia Roberts.
“It was obvious to many standing there that the president did not know who George Clooney was,” the excerpt obtained by The New Yorker reads, and notes that someone in Biden’s camp attempted to jog the politician’s memory by saying, “You know George.”
“Clooney was shaken to his core,” the passage continues. “The president hadn’t recognized him. A man he had known for years.”
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An anonymous A-list onlooker also described the exchange. “It was not okay,” they told the writers. “That thing, the moment where you recognize someone you know—especially a famous person who’s doing a f–king fundraiser for you—it was delayed. It was uncomfortable.”
A month later, Clooney penned a piece for The New York Times titled, “I Love Joe Biden, But We Need a New Nominee.”
“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,” the award-winning actor wrote. “In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced.”
Though he didn’t mention any specifics, Clooney did reference the fundraiser.
“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,” Clooney recalled. “He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”
A spokesperson for Biden is aware of Original Sin, hitting shelves on May 20, and issued a statement to People.
“We have not reviewed the book, and the authors did not fact check the book with us, despite it being a common practice to do so,” the statement reads. “So we are not going to respond to every bit of this book they choose to release via select leaks in the reporters’ efforts to make a profit.”
Clooney has yet to respond to the excerpt.
