Obama silent over reports he's working 'behind the scenes' to force Biden out of the 2024 race
A source close to Obama declined to comment but pointed Fox News Digital to the former president's past comments in support of Biden
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former President Obama is keeping tight-lipped following reports that he is working "behind the scenes" to force President Biden out of the 2024 presidential race.
Multiple media outlets reported Thursday morning on Obama's alleged efforts, including Politico, which stated that the former president had been given a "heads-up" by actor George Clooney concerning his damaging New York Times guest essay calling on Biden to drop out.
"While Obama did not encourage or advise Clooney to say what he said, he also didn’t object to it," the report said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}‘OBAMA BRO’ CONFIRMS CLAIMS IN CLOONEY'S DAMAGING OP-ED ON BIDEN'S MENTAL FITNESS
Former President Obama and President Biden. (Getty Images)
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough went a step further, stating on "Morning Joe," a favorite program of Biden's, that "what's going on behind the scenes is the Biden campaign and many Democratic officials do believe that Barack Obama is quietly working behind the scenes to orchestrate this."
A source close to Obama declined to comment on the reports but pointed Fox News Digital to the former president's statements in support of Biden, both at the Los Angeles fundraiser that became the subject of Clooney's op-ed, and his disappointing showing in the first presidential debate last month.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Obama has since remained quiet publicly as a number of his close allies and former staffers ramp up their calls for the president to step aside, including Clooney, former adviser David Axelrod and the "Obama bros," a group of three close advisers often referred to by that name during Obama's tenure in the White House.
‘OBAMA BROS' GANG UP ON BIDEN AS LONGSTANDING RUMORS OF TENSION LINGER: ‘HARD TO WATCH’
Joe Scarborough speaks during the National Action Network's Women's Empowerment Luncheon at the Sheraton New York in New York City on April 11. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)
Clooney wrote in his op-ed that Democratic Party leaders needed to stop trying to convince Americans they "didn't see what we just saw," and accused them of ignoring "warning signs" concerning Biden.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He cited his attendance at the June fundraiser, writing that the Biden who showed up there was "not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate."
Former adviser Jon Favreau, a member of the "Obama bros," said during a Wednesday appearance on CNN that he was at the same fundraiser and observed the same things as Clooney.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Jon Favreau speaks onstage during the live taping of "Pod Save America" at the Barrymore Theater in Madison, Wisconsin, on March 18, 2023. (Jeff Schear/Getty Images for WisDems)
"It was not surprising to any of us who were at the fundraiser. I was there. Clooney was exactly right, and every single person I talked to at the fundraiser thought the same thing, except for the people working for Joe Biden, or at least they didn't say that," he said.
"I remember my wife, Emily, turned to me after the fundraiser and said, ‘What are we going to do?’ And I said, ‘Well, there is a debate in a week. Either he’ll do well in the debate, and we'll think he was just tired, because he flew all the way back from Europe, and that'll be that, or he'll be like this at the debate and then the whole country will be talking about it. So, here we are."
Biden has said he will not be leaving the 2024 race, and his campaign is continuing to go "full steam ahead," as one source put it to Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
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