"Elder Abuse"; Celebrities Demands Biden To Step Down From Presidential Race

US President Joe Biden continue to lose crucial support from his colleagues, big-name celebrities and donors. His shaky performance during the first presidential debate against Donald Trump led to question the 81-year-old’s cognitive capacity to run for the re-election.

Despite the growing scrutiny from public, and from within his own party, Biden appears insistent about his ability to run for the top post again.

Read also: More Democrat Voices Demand Biden To Quit Presidential Race

Celebrities are coming forward, asking Biden to step aside. In an op-ed for The New York Times, Oscar-winning actor George Clooney wrote that while “I love Joe Biden,” the Democrats “need a new nominee”.

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

“But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can. 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”, Clooney further wrote.

He called on “top Democrats,” including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, to “ask this president to voluntarily step aside”.

Rob Reiner, director of When Harry Met Sally, wrote on his X account, “If the Convicted Felon wins, we lose our Democracy. Joe Biden has effectively served US with honour, decency, and dignity. It’s time for Joe Biden to step down”.

Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, a self-proclaimed “lifelong Democrat,” declared that “Biden has to go & the Dems need to wake up”. In a guest column written for Deadline, he urged others to withhold their donations to the Democratic party until “there’s change at the top of the ticket…When Joe finally leaves the mound, I will stand and applaud. Because he truly pitched a great game”, he said.

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, one of the biggest donors of Democrats, has also called for Biden to drop out of the race. “Biden needs to step aside to allow a vigorous Democratic leader to beat Trump and keep us safe and prosperous”, he wrote in an email to New York Times.

Director Michael Moore, during an appearance on MSNBC, accused the Democratic party of committing “elder abuse” by pushing Biden to continue with his election campaign.

Read also: Biden Has Conceded, Says Report; White House Responds

“The problem here is that I think there is a form of elder abuse going on here where the Democratic Party and the people that are part of the apparatus are pushing and pushing him to stay. And then he comes out and says ‘I am staying,’ and the family says ‘I am staying,’” he said.

“I don’t know about you, but in spite of my criticisms with Biden, watching the debate a week ago was heartbreaking. It was like, imagine that was your father up there. I’m thinking, why isn’t anybody doing anything? Why did they let him go out on the stage in this condition? Who is looking out for him? Who is looking out for him right now?”, Moore added.

Last week, Disney heiress Abigail Disney, a longstanding Democratic donor, hailed Biden as “a good man” who had served his country “admirably,” but warned about the dire consequences if the leadership was changed. “I intend to stop any contributions to the party unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket,” she said in a statement shared with CNBC.

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers are considering signing a letter demanding that President Joe Biden withdraw from the race, a senior party official said, as panic mounts that he’ll cost them control of Congress, reports Bloomberg.

Every effort of the President in the White House and campaign team makes to fix the issue ends up exacerbating. Moreover, the fallout from the debate has created yet another extraordinary twist in a stunning campaign featuring a convicted felon and another who is already the oldest to hold the job in history.