The Biden campaign fired back at actor George Clooney on Wednesday after Clooney called for President Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race, suggesting that the 81-year-old president has better stamina than Clooney.

Clooney wrote in a New York Times op-ed that he held “the single largest fund-raiser supporting any Democratic candidate ever” last month for Biden. He said the Biden who showed up to the event “was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

Biden’s team fired back: “The President stayed for over 3 hours, while Clooney took a photo quickly and left.”

Clooney’s op-ed comes as Democrats are panicking over whether Biden should remain in the presidential race after his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump.

“Our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw,” Clooney wrote of the debate. “We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign. The George Stephanopoulos interview only reinforced what we saw the week before. As Democrats, we collectively hold our breath or turn down the volume whenever we see the president, whom we respect, walk off Air Force One or walk back to a mic to answer an unscripted question.”

Clooney said that the party would not win with Biden as the nominee and that it would lose the House and Senate.

“This isn’t only my opinion; this is the opinion of every senator and Congress member and governor who I’ve spoken with in private. Every single one, irrespective of what he or she is saying publicly,” he said. “Most of our members of Congress are opting to wait and see if the dam breaks. But the dam has broken. We can put our heads in the sand and pray for a miracle in November, or we can speak the truth.”

Clooney called on top Democrat leaders to publicly pressure Biden to drop out of the race and make way for Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrat Governors Wes Moore (Maryland), Gretchen Whitmer (Michigan), Gavin Newsom (California), Andy Beshear (Kentucky), and J.B. Pritzker (Illinois).

“Would it be messy? Yes. Democracy is messy,” he wrote. “But would it enliven our party and wake up voters who, long before the June debate, had already checked out? It sure would. The short ramp to Election Day would be a benefit for us, not a danger.”

Clooney then praised France for electing far-Left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

“This can be an exciting time for democracy, as we’ve just seen with the 200 or so French candidates who stepped aside and put their personal ambitions on hold to save their democracy from the far right,” Clooney concluded.

The Biden campaign is responding to George Clooney’s op-ed by telling reporters on background that Clooney left the fundraiser three hours before Biden did. @kaylatausche tells @jaketapper the comment is to suggest that Biden has more stamina than Clooney and that he wasn’t… pic.twitter.com/awIMRJ04SB

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) July 10, 2024

One former White House Press Secretary has a few words of advice for President Joe Biden: “cancel the press conference.”

Fox News anchor Dana Perino, who served as press secretary to former President George W. Bush, suggested that Biden — whose recent struggles and apparent cognitive decline have been front and center since his disastrous first debate with former President Donald Trump  — would not be best served by another public attempt at clean-up.

Referencing a scheduled news conference Biden has planned for Thursday — three weeks to the day since the debate — Perino said that Biden was likely to be flooded with questions that he thus far has not seemed prepared to answer.

“I’d cancel tomorrow’s press conference,” Perino said in a post to X. “Save the embarrassment of the questions he will get. Provide him dignified space to absorb what’s happening.”

I’d cancel tomorrow’s press conference. Save the embarrassment of the questions he will get. Provide him dignified space to absorb what’s happening.

— Dana Perino (@DanaPerino) July 10, 2024

“If they cancel the presser, he’s done. And it will signal to everyone that they know it,” Guy Benson responded to Perino’s post.

If they cancel the presser, he’s done. And it will signal to everyone that they know it. https://t.co/zWxUISrjw8

— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) July 10, 2024

She replied to Benson, saying that was pretty much what she had been trying to get at: “That’s the point though. Well, my point!”

Doug Powers argued that the news conference was likely to be scripted, suggesting that Biden was likely to be directed with regard to which reporters he could call on and what they would ask.

“If the reporters are hand-picked and required to submit questions in advance the media will again be complicit in this embarrassment. If WH press refuses to do so then Biden’s staff will find an excuse to cancel,” he said.

If the reporters are hand-picked and required to submit questions in advance the media will again be complicit in this embarrassment. If WH press refuses to do so then Biden’s staff will find an excuse to cancel. https://t.co/i8fdMC29J2

— Doug Powers (@ThePowersThatBe) July 10, 2024

Matt Whitlock raised another potential sticking point, however, asking how anyone could justify keeping President Biden in office until January if they were ready to pull him out of a press conference because they didn’t believe he could handle it.

“If there’s any inkling he’s going to step aside they should cancel – too embarrassing and jarring for our country. But if he does that I’m not sure how they explain keeping him in office through January,” he explained.

If there’s any inkling he’s going to step aside they should cancel – too embarrassing and jarring for our country.

But if he does that I’m not sure how they explain keeping him in office through January. https://t.co/sI7R33p8nE

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) July 11, 2024