Former President Joe Biden reportedly failed to recognize longtime friend and Hollywood megastar George Clooney at a 2024 fundraiser, just four months before the election. The startling moment is recounted in an excerpt from the upcoming book Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, co-authored by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson.
According to the excerpt published by The New Yorker, the incident occurred at a June 2024 fundraising event in Los Angeles hosted by Hollywood power player Jeffrey Katzenberg. Clooney, who had last seen Biden in 2022, was present alongside Julia Roberts, mingling with donors when the president arrived from the G-7 summit in Italy.
Attendees were quickly alarmed by Biden’s frail appearance. Clooney reportedly noticed that Biden appeared “severely diminished,” moving in “tiny steps” and being guided by an aide. “It was like watching someone who was not alive,” one unnamed Hollywood insider told the authors, adding that the room collectively realized something was wrong.
As Clooney greeted the president, Biden twice repeated, “Thank you for being here,” without showing recognition. An aide had to whisper, “You know George,” prompting Biden to offer another generic “Thank you for being here” before Clooney gently tried to engage.
The conversation didn’t improve. When Clooney asked about Biden’s recent trip, the president simply replied, “It was fine.” After further prompting by an aide who clarified, “This is George Clooney,” Biden finally responded, “Oh, yeah! Hi, George!” But by then, the damage was done.
Clooney was reportedly “shaken to his core,” the book states. The lapse was especially jarring given their long-standing relationship and the fact that Clooney was actively supporting Biden’s campaign efforts. “It was not okay,” another Hollywood witness said. “It was delayed. It was uncomfortable.”
The moment reportedly played a role in Clooney’s decision to later publish a scathing op-ed in the New York Times, urging the Democratic Party to replace Biden as their nominee. Just weeks after the fundraiser, Clooney wrote that he no longer believed Biden could win in November.
The report adds further weight to ongoing concerns about Biden’s cognitive decline. While Tapper himself had largely ignored these concerns on air for years, his co-author Alex Thompson was one of the few mainstream journalists who openly acknowledged Biden’s deterioration before the first 2024 debate.
As critics continue to blast the media for suppressing the story of Biden’s mental decline, this latest revelation stands as a damning reminder of how far the cover-up went — and how jarring the truth was even for his closest allies.
For the Hollywood elite, seeing a president fail to recognize one of their own at a high-profile fundraiser was not just embarrassing — it was disqualifying.
