Hollywood turns back on Joe Biden: Will it hurt his chances in US elections?

United States president Joe Biden is under pressure to bow out of the November presidential race. From the Hollywood elite to many Democrats, the 81-year-old is being called to step aside and make way for a younger candidate.

Biden’s disastrous performance in the the first presidential debate last month sparked concerns about his age and ability to win against his Republican rival Donald Trump. Several Hollywood A-listers, who once endorsed the Democrat, are now leading the calls for Biden to quit the race.

For his part, the US president has refused to listen. He has consistently maintained he will stay in the race and that he is the only candidate who can defeat Trump in the November election.

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But why has Hollywood turned its back on Joe Biden and will it hurt his chances? Let’s take a closer look.

Hollywood turns back on Biden

Even before George Clooney wrote a damaging Opinion piece calling on Biden to step aside, a chorus of voices against the Democrat’s candidature had begun to rise.

Screenwriter and novelist Ayelet Waldman stopped donating to liberal Democrat candidates up and down the ballot to protest against Biden’s candidature.

“I’ve always donated. I’ve always donated more than I can afford. But this is the first time I have ever decided to stop donating up and down the ballot as a means of indicating my - I think displeasure isn’t the right word - absolute, gut-curdling panic,” she told the BBC.

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Clooney’s recent op-ed for The New York Times (NYT) was a scathing disapproval of Biden for whom the Ocean’s Eleven star headlined a fundraiser last month.

“I love Joe Biden. As a senator. As a vice president and as president. I consider him a friend, and I believe in him,” Clooney wrote in the piece. “Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced.”

“But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can,” he added. “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-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.”

“Joe Biden is a hero; he saved democracy in 2020. We need him to do it again in 2024," he concluded the piece by saying.

Clooney is a major Democratic donor and one of the high-profile supporters of Biden. The fundraiser, which saw Clooney, Julia Roberts and Jimmy Kimmel, sing praises of the US president raised a whopping $30 million (Rs 250 crore) – more than any Democratic fundraiser ever, as per CNN.

When Harry Met Sally… director Rob Reiner backed Clooney’s views, writing on X, “My friend George Clooney has clearly expressed what many of us have been saying. Democracy is facing an existential threat. We need someone younger to fight back. Joe Biden must step aside.”

Actor and producer Michael Douglas, who hosted a fundraiser for the US president in April, told BBC he was disappointed in Biden’s “inability” to “challenge all the lies” of Trump in the presidential debate hosted by CNN.

While he did not explicitly ask Biden to end his campaign, the Last Vegas actor expressed doubts about Biden serving a full term if he returns as president. “I am worried,” he said.

Disney heiress Abigail Disney has said she would withhold donations until Biden steps aside. Hailing the US president as “a good man” who had “served his country admirably”, she said Trump might win in November if Biden did not end his campaign.

Serendipity actor John Cusack has also called for a new Democrat candidate.

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings has also urged Biden to exit from the race. He told NYT in an email, “Biden needs to step aside to allow a vigorous Democratic leader to beat Trump and keep us safe and prosperous.”

This is a major shift for Hastings, who along with his wife Patty Quillin, donated $1.5 million to Biden’s campaign in 2020 and over $20 million to the Democratic Party, according to The Times.

Bestselling horror author Stephen King wrote in a post on X this week that while “Joe Biden has been a fine president” it is time for him “in the interests of the America he so clearly loves – to announce he will not run for re-election.”

In an article on his website, filmmaker Michael Moore asked Biden not to run, saying “your body is begging you”. Speaking to MSNBC, Moore accused the Democratic party of committing “elder abuse” by pushing Biden to continue with his candidacy.

Screenwriter Damon Lindelof wrote a piece for Deadline, saying Biden “has to go”. He also asked others to “stop giving money” to all Democrat candidates until Biden drops out of the race.

“Is it misguided to punish the entire team for the stubbornness of the pitcher? Maybe. But it’s also common sense that if he stays in, they will also lose. A rising tide lifts all boats. A falling Biden sinks them,” he wrote.

A high-profile Hollywood donor told Variety, “With all the text chains I’m on, people are basically like, ‘If he doesn’t drop out, we’re not giving any more money to Democrats or the Democratic Party.’ It’s like super intense.”

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Will Hollywood’s withdrawal of support hurt Biden?

Hollywood has always thrown its weight behind the Democratic Party, especially financially.

Now, the growing discontent among Hollywood A-listers, including some of the biggest donors of the party, has raised questions about whether it would dent Biden’s chances against Trump.

Hollywood is an influential bloc. Biden ’s campaign needs celebrities to fill its coffers.

As per Politico, Clooney’s op-ed has the potential to sway the average American voter. “It will get into the pop culture. TMZ will talk about it. TikTok influencers will talk about it,” Brian Goldsmith, an LA-based Democratic consultant who has worked in the media industry, told the American digital newspaper company.

Fai Nelson, a human resources worker, told Associated Press (AP) in June that celebrities can make a difference “if they can touch the audience.” “It’s whether the message is relevant.”

Biden needs Hollywood’s enthusiastic support, given the shift of some Silicon Valley donors to Trump in recent months, noted Variety.

But is Hollywood’s support enough to get Biden re-elected?

Speaking to AP, David Schmid, an English professor at the University of Buffalo who studies popular culture, said that celebrities can influence what fans consume and their aspirations. But, he added, that their influence “over peoples’ voting habits has been really exaggerated.”

The Biden campaign has been calling Hollywood supporters to ensure they do not leave the US president in this tumultuous period, CNN reported.

As The Guardian mentioned, Biden’s A-list endorsers still comprise older Hollywood celebrities. Younger celebrities may judge the US president for his handling of Israel’s war in Gaza and “attendant failure to stop the bloodshed – which means they may not have been endorsing him to begin with.”

“Biden may not need celebrities to win, or for his sense of worth. But he does need actual support, and Clooney’s op-ed helped make him seem more like a cause than a candidate,” the British newspaper piece read.

Moreover, it is unlikely that these Democratic Party supporters will vote against Biden if he remains in the race. For them, Trump’s second term is the more scary option than Biden’s.

With inputs from agencies