In the New York Times, George Clooney writes:
We are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate. This isn’t only my opinion; this is the opinion of every senator and congress member and governor that I’ve spoken with in private. Every single one, irrespective of what he or she is saying publicly.
On X, the Atlantic’s Derek Thompson summarizes the state of play thus:
The Party Decides, extremely weird and totally busted 2025 edition
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say stuff to George Clooney on the phone
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so he can summarize your anonymized views in the NYT
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to create a pressurized atmosphere of common knowledge about the obvious risks of Biden’s age
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to reduce the individual risk of speaking out against the party leader
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to retrigger a cascade of electeds coming out against his reelection campaign
He’s right, of course. But as I noted earlier, it’s not just the risk within the party. It’s also the public risk of saying Biden isn’t up to it, then his continuing to be the nominee, then having no credible argument to present to voters that he’s preferable to Trump.