After hosting a Biden fundraiser, George Clooney asks him to step down

The wave of personalities and politicians calling for Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race has not stopped. One of the leading voices in the Democratic Party, Nancy Pelosi, refrained from endorsing Biden's candidacy and reminded that time is running out for a replacement to be chosen. 

Actor George Clooney joined the long list of people who think Biden should drop out of the race: 

"I love Joe Biden but we need another candidate," wrote the actor, director and producer in an article published in The New York Times and reported by AFP. 

George Clooney, a lifelong Democratic Party supporter, recalled a fundraiser for the president in mid-June:

"It's terrible to say this, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago was not the same as the Joe Biden of 2010, or even the Joe Biden of 2020. It was the same man we all witnessed at the debate." 

The pressure for Biden to drop out of the campaign comes even from those who have funded his presidential campaign. This week, it became known that several billionaires announced that they will no longer donate to the Democratic Party until President Joe Biden decides to step aside.

A report from the The New York Times stated that, after days of behind-the-scenes complaints and a withdrawal announcement that never came, many millionaire Democratic donors are trying to take matters into their own hands by threatening to curb donations with less than five months to go before the general election.

"Wielding their fortunes as both carrot and stick, donors have undertaken a number of initiatives to pressure Mr. Biden to step down from the top of the ticket and help lay the groundwork for an alternate candidate," the NYT reported, citing the billionaire donors who have said they will stop writing checks.

One of the most high-profile donors who will stop writing checks is Abigail E. Disney, a filmmaker heiress to the Disney fortune, who stated in an email that the Biden campaign and all committees backing him "will not receive another dime from me until they bite the bullet and replace Biden at the top of the ticket."

Disney also asserted that "Biden is a good man who has served his country well, but the stakes are far too high to allow timidity to determine our course of action."

In the Democratic Party, several have already called for Biden not to move forward with his aspirations to continue in the White House. According to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), five senior members of Congress made the request privately. In recent hours, in this case in public, Democrat Mikie Sherrill insisted that the president not be the Democratic nominee in November.

According to the WSJ, the group consisted of Jerry Nadler and Joe Morelle of New York, Adam Smith of Washington, Jim Himes of Connecticut and Mark Takano of California. 

"The developments opened a wide crack in Biden’s wall of support, bringing the number of House Democrats’ calling for him to step aside to about 10. They included the top Democrats on the Judiciary, Armed Services and Intelligence Committees," the WSJ reported.

They were also joined by Sherrill, a moderate Democrat who has represented New Jersey's 11th district in the House of Representatives since 2018. The list is rounded out, according to a tally by The Guardian: Lloyd Doggett, Raul Grijalva, Seth Moulton, Mike Quigley and Angie Craig.

Despite the chaos his dismal debate performance against Donald Trump has generated, the president sought to dispel doubts about his candidacy with a letter to Democrats in Congress after the July 4 vacation.

"Fellow Democrats, now that you have returned from the July 4th recess, I want you to know that despite all the speculation in the press and elsewhere, I am firmly committed to staying in this race, to running this race to the end, and to beating Donald Trump," Biden wrote in the letter.