As Ed described earlier, there's a new book about President Biden's decline in office and the White House effort to cover it up coming out next week. I don't have an advance copy unfortunately, but the authors wrote a story for the New Yorker today which is based on the book. The article describes a key moment last summer when Biden attended a star-studded fundraiser and wound up scaring the hell out of a lot of Democrats including his old friend George Clooney.

By the time the 2024 Presidential race had begun, the actor had known Biden for decades and had known him well for fifteen years. He had last seen Biden on December 4, 2022, when Clooney was in D.C. with his wife, Amal, to be celebrated at the Kennedy Center Honors. Biden looked older, sure, but in the East Room of the White House, at the reception for the honorees, the President was playful and seemed cogent enough.

“We see Amal Clooney’s husband,” the President said, to laughter.

Biden held a big fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall in March which set a record, $26 million raised at a single event. Clooney and Jeffrey Katzenberg wanted to see if they could top it with a fundraiser in Hollywood. Clooney would have to fly from Italy to California and then head back to Italy on another plane before the event was even over. Julia Roberts agreed to co-host. The date was June 15, 2024, a Saturday.

Clooney arrived at the 7,000 seat theater hours early. He and Roberts were there to take photos with all of the big donors before the show began. Clooney was shocked when Biden arrived.

Biden hobbled out from around the corner. Clooney knew that the President had just arrived from the G-7 leaders’ summit in Apulia, Italy, that morning and might be tired, but, holy shit, he wasn’t expecting this.

The President appeared severely diminished, as if he’d aged a decade since Clooney last saw him, in December, 2022. He was taking tiny steps, and an aide seemed to be guiding him by the arm.

“It was like watching someone who was not alive,” a Hollywood V.I.P. recalled. “It was startling. And we all looked at each other. It was so awful.”

But the key moment wasn't seeing the president it was talking to him and realizing that Biden didn't recognize him.

“You know George,” the assisting aide told the President, gently reminding him who was in front of him. “Yeah, yeah,” the President said to one of the most recognizable men in the world, the host of this lucrative fund-raiser. “Thank you for being here.”...

It seemed clear that the President had not recognized Clooney.

“It was not O.K.,” recalled the Hollywood V.I.P. who had witnessed this moment. “That thing, the moment where you recognize someone you know—especially a famous person who’s doing a fucking fund-raiser for you—it was delayed. It was uncomfortable.”

“George Clooney,” the aide clarified for the President...

Clooney was shaken to his core. The President hadn’t recognized him, a man he had known for years. 

Clooney would later write an op-ed for the NY Times calling on Biden to step down and give the party a chance to find another nominee. Clooney talked about this during a recent 60 Minutes interview saying "I was raised to tell the truth." But as Megyn Kelly pointed out, Clooney had not told the truth until after Biden's disastrous presidential debate. Only then did he call for Biden to step aside. But for three weeks before that he'd sat on what he knew and not shared it publicly. 

The New Yorker article chalks this up to Clooney compartmentalizing but this seems like an excuse. In any case, Clooney did get pushback from his friend Jeffrey Katzenberg and others telling him not to publish the op-ed. So even after the debate there were still a lot of Democrats who wanted to remain silent.

You already know how the June fundraiser story ended. Former President Obama, who had also noticed Biden was struggling that night helped get him off a stage when he seemed stuck.

When the event ended, the three men stood. Obama began to walk offstage, but Biden walked to the edge and, after waving and giving a thumbs up, stopped and stared blankly into the crowd. Obama turned back and grabbed Biden’s arm, then guided him backstage. He later explained that he just wanted to get the hell out of there, but he didn’t want to leave Biden alone up on the stage. Biden folks insisted that the President was just basking in the glow of a supportive audience, and they called clips of the moment “cheap fakes,” a term for video content that has been deceptively edited or taken out of context. But even some supporters present in the arena wondered what was going on.

Cheap fakes was just another lie the media piled on top of the White House's lies about Biden. It was a way to shut up the critics and it might have worked if not for the debate. The Biggest Lie almost worked.