The most powerful chemical in the solvent driving a presidential campaign is money. Lots and lots of money. Hollywood has traditionally been a steadfast financial pillar for Democratic candidates yet more and more of its gilded elites are rejecting Joe Biden in his 2024 quest for a return to office.
Actor George Clooney is just one of the wealthy donors urging the U.S. president to withdraw from the White House race, as Breitbart News reported.
“I love Joe Biden. But we need a new nominee,” Clooney wrote in a column in the New York Times on Wednesday, after Biden’s disastrous performance in a televised presidential debate against Republican rival Donald Trump.
He and Julia Roberts had helped raise a record sum for the president’s re-election campaign but has since withdrawn his support, saying the octogenarian showed clear signs of cognitive decline.
At the gala, the president was able to walk away with more than $30 million in one evening, a record amount spotlighting the industry’s might in financing the American left.
“If all these big donors pull out, he’s sunk,” Steve Ross, professor of history at the University of Southern California who wrote a book on the influence of Hollywood on American politics, told AFP.
“Hollywood is still the one shop stop for candidates.”
Brad Bannon, a Democratic pollster and strategist, agreed. He said the effect of Clooney’s move on Biden’s campaign was “like the Titanic hit the iceberg.”
Beyond generating headlines, A-listers in left-leaning Hollywood pulling their support can pack a punch to a campaign’s coffers.
“Not only does Clooney have star power, he has financial power,” Bannon told The Hill.
“That’s one of the reasons why Clooney’s op-ed was seismic, because he represents star power and money — and in the world of politics, that’s a potent combination,” the Bannon Communications Research CEO added.
In recent days, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings has called for Biden to go, so too Walt Disney’s granddaughter Abigail and Hollywood mega agent Ari Emanuel, whose brother Rahm served as Barack Obama’s chief of staff — said they would not be financing Biden citing concerns over his age.
All claim they watch how Biden performs in public and despair at his prospects come November.
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The White HouseThe AFP report notes both Bill and Hillary Clinton relied on Hollywood support in their respective White House bids.
In 2007, Obama famously benefited from the “Oprah Winfrey effect,” receiving a boost to his profile after the star TV host organized a dinner to promote the man who was then still only a lowly senator with high aspirations.
During the presidential race in 2020, the entertainment industry gave $104 million to Democrats compared to $13 million to Republicans, according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit that tracks campaign financing.
So are Hollywood hearts and wallets abandoning Biden for good or does he still have time to resurrect his faltering campaign?
Clooney’s New York Times op-ed “is another pressure point, for sure,” Steven Maviglio, a Democratic adviser who worked with former California governor Gray Davis, told AFP.
But Maviglio hopes the panic of certain donors will subside and be “a temporary phenomenon.”
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“If the president decides to stay and it becomes clear that it’s going to be Biden and Trump, Hollywood will be right back where they started, supporting Joe Biden,” Maviglio said.
He added the industry’s defections are not yet numerous enough to end Biden’s campaign.
Billionaire Jeffrey Katzenberg, a former Disney executive and co-founder of Dreamworks, who organized the June gala fundraiser for Biden, is now the focus of attention.
Since Biden’s disastrous debate, Katzenberg has been heavily criticized, but has himself remained silent even as other Hollywood veterans make public their change of heart.
“He’s the engine behind the machine. So if he stops, that’s significant,” Maviglio said.
Despite mounting pressure from the media, donors, and even leaders of his own party, Biden has shown no indication he will step aside.
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