NEW YORK: Actor George Clooney, one of the Democratic Party’s leading fundraisers, on Wednesday made an emotional and heartfelt plea for President Joe Biden to end his faltering reelection campaign.
Clooney — a member of the Hollywood elite that provides key support to the Democrats — joined a growing list of public figures calling for Biden, 81, to step aside after his terrible debate performance against Donald Trump last month.
“I love Joe Biden,” Clooney wrote in the New York Times. “I consider him a friend, and I believe in him... But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time.”
A self-described “lifelong Democrat,” Clooney co-hosted a star-studded fundraiser with Biden in Los Angeles only last month featuring former president Barack Obama.
The Biden campaign said that the event brought in a record $28 million.
“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,” Clooney wrote, referencing a famous hot-mic clip from Biden’s vice presidency.
“He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate,” Clooney said — a direct challenge to Biden’s claim that his poor debate showing was a one-off.
“The dam has broken” on Democratic lawmakers publicly calling for Biden to withdraw, Clooney said, asking for more to come forward.
“Top Democrats — Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, Nancy Pelosi — and senators, representatives and other candidates who face losing in November need to ask this president to voluntarily step aside.”
The Oscar-winner brushed aside worries that Biden’s exit would create chaos four months before an election in which the Democrats hope to keep Trump from power, and did not endorse a replacement candidate.
The party should hear from contenders such as Vice President Kamala Harris, Maryland Governor Wes Moore and others, “then we could go into the Democratic convention next month and figure it out,” he wrote.
George Clooney urges Biden to end campaign
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George Clooney urges Biden to end campaign
- Clooney — a member of the Hollywood elite that provides key support to the Democrats — joined a growing list of public figures calling for Biden, 81, to step aside
- George Clooney: I love Joe Biden. I consider him a friend, and I believe in him... But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time
UN peacekeepers defy South Sudan military’s order to leave opposition-held town
JUBA, South Sudan: The United Nations Mission in South Sudan said Monday that it would not comply with a government order to shut down its base in Akobo, an opposition stronghold near the Ethiopian border where tens of thousands of refugees have fled.
On Friday, the South Sudanese army ordered UN peacekeepers as well as NGOs and civilians to vacate the town ahead of a planned assault.
But the mission refused to leave and said it would provide “a protective presence for civilians” in the town, adding that the safety and security of its personnel “must be fully respected at all times.”
The UN Mission said it was engaging “intensively with national, state and local stakeholders” regarding this order. “Any military operations in and around Akobo gravely endanger the safety and security of civilians,” said mission chief Anita Kiki Gbeho.
The South Sudanese government has been fighting opposition forces since a 2018 peace deal broke down about a year ago.
A dramatic escalation took place in December 2025, when opposition forces seized several government outposts in northern Jonglei. A government counter-offensive repelled their forces a month later and displaced over 280,000 people. Tens of thousands have sought refuge in Akobo, where a small contingent of UN peacekeepers is stationed.
Fearing the looming government assault on Akobo, humanitarian workers were evacuated over the weekend, and a mass exodus of the population has also begun.
Local officials contacted by the The Associated Press said fleeing civilians faced danger and widespread shortages of essential supplies. Dual Diew, the Akobo County health director, who has fled to Ethiopia, said there were 84 wounded patients at the hospital. “We have most of them with us here now,” he said, adding that they lack medicine and basic nursing equipment.
Christophe Garnier, the leader of Doctors Without Borders in South Sudan said the organization had to evacuate its staff from Akobo on Saturday and learned of the subsequent looting of its hospital and the ransacking of its office.
“People in Akobo must now either flee without protection or remain at risk of being killed, while losing access to health care and other essential services,” he said.
The three Western governments that have played a major role in the peace process — the U.S, UK, and Norway — sent a letter to President Kiir on Monday urging that the army’s evacuation order be revoked and warning of “further deaths, displacement and suffering for the South Sudanese people” if the offensive on Akobo is implemented.
