MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski claimed on Thursday that former President Barack Obama was behind George Clooney’s New York Times op-ed demanding that President Biden not seek re-election.
“This wasn’t George Clooney,” Brzezinski said of the op-ed during Thursday morning’s broadcast of the show that Biden is said to watch frequently.
“What do you mean?” asked Joe Scarborough, her husband and co-host. “Who do you think it was? Who do you think it was?”
“You can say the name, you won’t melt. It’s not Voldemort. Are you saying you think Barack Obama put him up to this?”
Brzezinski responded: “I think that Barack Obama has a lot of influence, and I think that there’s, there’s a lot there.”
“There’s a lot there!” Scarborough said.
“There’s a lot there!” Brzezinski repeated.
Scarborough added that Biden was still “deeply resentful of his treatment” and resentful “not only of the Obama staff but also the way he was pushed aside for Hillary Clinton … He’s always felt like an outsider, always felt like people look down upon him.”
Brzezinski then took aim at Obama, saying his presidency wasn’t as important as that of his vice president.
She was commenting on a photo in which the two men appeared alongside Clooney and Julia Roberts at a Los Angeles fundraiser last month.
“I’ll tell you, there were two people in this picture, and one has had a presidency that was absolutely, undeniably historic,” she said, referring to Biden.
“Well, I think you have two people that had extraordinarily historic presidencies,” Scarborough replied.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she interjected. “Historic in terms of legislative accomplishments.”
Clooney said in a New York Times opinion piece that he loves Biden, but the party would lose the presidential race as well as any control in Congress with him as the nominee.
Let’s break down Clooney’s role in Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign
- George Clooney has played a role in Democratic fundraising since Barack Obama’s 2012 run, including leading a benefit for former Vice President Joe Biden in 2020 and another in June 2024.
- Clooney, joined by actresses Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand, helped Biden take in a record $30 million-plus at a star-studded fundraising event in New York City just last month.
- Just weeks later, Clooney turned on Biden and published an op-ed in the New York Times calling for the 81-year-old to leave the race following his atrocious debate appearance.
- Clooney wrote that Biden “cannot win” in November, adding that the president is not the man he used to know, but rather “the same man we all witnessed at the debate.” The actor even said that “every senator and Congress member and governor that I’ve spoken with in private” agrees that Biden must step down.
- Donald Trump blasted Clooney for his comments, telling him to “get out of politics and go back to TV,” and said the actor had “turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are.”
- A report also revealed that Obama knew ahead of time what Clooney planned to write and did not object to the op-ed.
The news site Politico reported late Wednesday that Obama, who has publicly supported Biden, had advance knowledge that Clooney would publish the op-ed.
According to the report, Obama did not try to dissuade his friend from going through with the piece.
“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,” wrote Clooney.
Clooney argued the party should pick a new nominee at its convention next month, saying the process would be “messy” but would “wake up” voters in the party’s favor, mentioning Vice President Kamala Harris and Govs. Wes Moore of Maryland, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Gavin Newsom of California among those from whom the country should hear.
Biden, 81, has resisted calls from Clooney and other top Democrats to step aside following his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump last month.
Weeks before the debate, Clooney, Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand were among those who took the stage for a fundraiser that brought in a record $30 million-plus for Biden.
Focusing much of his piece around Biden’s age, Clooney noted differences he saw in the president during their recent Los Angeles event compared to years past.
“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–king deal’ Biden of 2010,” Clooney wrote.
“He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”