George and Amal Clooney’s Long Friendship with the Obamas Amid Biden Tensions

George Clooney has been a lifelong Democratic supporter, hosting fundraisers for President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Joe Biden in 2020. His recent fundraiser for Biden in June 2024 was the single largest for the party ever, raising over $30 million.

That’s why his recent op-ed in the New York Times, calling on Biden to step down from the 2024 presidential race, has sent shockwaves through A-list supporters of the President. Reports emerged that former President Obama knew about George’s remarks beforehand and didn’t attempt to stop him.

George’s friendship with Barack goes much deeper than policy. The pair have become close friends over the years they worked together, now vacationing together with their wives, Michelle and Amal.

It all began in 2006 when they met in April at an event aimed at raising awareness about the humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. Later that year, George wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, calling Barack’s decision to run for office the “most electrifying thing to happen to the Democratic party since Kennedy.”

When Barack began his candidacy for President in 2007, George was among the first celebrities to donate $2,300, the maximum amount allowed. A year later, George hosted a $1,000-a-ticket fundraiser at his home in Geneva, Switzerland, in support of Barack’s campaign against Senator John McCain.

Initially, George and Barack’s relationship was purely professional, with George visiting the White House several times to discuss Darfur. By 2012, it had blossomed into a true friendship, cemented with George sitting next to Michelle Obama at a State Dinner.

Later that year, Barack visited Los Angeles for a fundraising trip where he played basketball with George, Don Cheadle, Tobey McGuire, and others. Barack quipped to the press afterward, “As you might expect, George and I won. We’re all winners because nobody got hurt.”

Barack’s closeness with Hollywood’s A-listers was often used as a critique against him, but Barack defended George, claiming he was “very protective about not bothering me.”

In May 2012, George hosted another fundraiser for Barack, raising $15 million at the $40,000-a-plate event. That same year, George narrated the video aired at the Democratic National Convention moments before Barack’s keynote speech.

In 2013, George met his future wife, Amal Alamuddin. While the Obamas did not attend their star-studded 2014 wedding, the two couples vacationed together in 2017 after the Obamas left the White House. The former President and his wife even stayed overnight at the Clooneys’ estate in Sonning, England, in early June, as the couple welcomed their twins, Alexander and Ella. The four enjoyed a five-hour dinner, and George and Barack even played basketball together.

By then, George and Barack had become close enough that George felt comfortable sending “racy” messages sometimes. “A little bit. Not Scaramucci-racy, but … you know, I have over the years with my friends said a lot of really outrageous things,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.

He added, “I’ve had an e-mail exchange with Sacha Baron Cohen that’s some of the filthiest stuff, honestly. Amal will be on the chain, and she’ll be upstairs, and I’ll hear her scream, ‘No!’ because it’s just foul, and you think, ‘Well, that would probably not be great if it came out.’

In 2019, Michelle and Barack, along with their daughters Malia and Sasha, visited George and Amal and their twins at Villa Oleandra, the Lake Como villa George has called home for years. They were pictured on various boats, and for one evening, the two couples enjoyed dinner together at Hotel Villa D’Este. In 2022, Michelle attended George and Amal’s post-Albie Awards party at The Mark Hotel in New York, NY.

Barack also honored George in a video tribute at his AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony in 2018, stating, “He is a good man, a good friend, a good citizen, and an outstanding filmmaker.”

Through Barack, George met Joe Biden, Vice-President of the United States between 2008 and 2016.

When Joe decided to run for President in 2020, George once again hosted a fundraiser. Joe made an appearance at the 2022 White House reception for the Kennedy Center Honorees—a group that included George that year—sharing that he respected George’s “deep empathy.”

“He knows the work remains unfinished, yet he is unrelenting and undaunted. That’s character in real life. And that’s George Clooney,” Joe said.

George said he considered Joe “a friend” in his July 10 op-ed for the New York Times before he went on to claim that “the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010.” He continued, “He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

A campaign official told CNN that “George Clooney left [the event] three hours before the president.”

But George’s words sent shockwaves through Hollywood’s elites and the Democratic party. Michael Douglas has even admitted that it may be time for Joe to step aside. It has been claimed via Politico that “while Obama did not encourage or advise Clooney to say what he said, he also didn’t object to it.”

These reports stand in contrast to Barack’s public tweet after the June debate, reminding followers that “bad debate nights happen.”

“But this election is still a choice between someone who has fought for ordinary folks his entire life and someone who only cares about himself,” Obama’s statement read. “Between someone who tells the truth; who knows right from wrong and will give it to the American people straight—and someone who lies through his teeth for his own benefit. Last night didn’t change that, and it’s why so much is at stake in November.”

Source: Hello Magazine, New York Times, CNN, Politico