Former president Joe Biden has signed up with Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which boasts A-list stars as Ariana Grande and Brad Pitt on its books, just two weeks after leaving the White House.
“President Biden is one of America’s most respected and influential voices in national and global affairs,” CAA co-chairman Richard Lovett said in announcing his company’s newest client.
“His lifelong commitment to public service is one of unity, optimism, dignity, and possibility.
“We are profoundly honored to partner with him again.”
Biden, now 82, previously worked with CAA between 2017 and 2020, the period between the conclusion of his role as Barack Obama’s vice president and his victory over Donald Trump in the latter year’s presidential race.
During that first stint, the agency supported the Democrat in the publication of his memoir Promise Me, Dad (2017), a New York Times bestseller recounting the loss of his son Beau Biden to cancer and his subsequent response to the tragedy, which in turn inspired the 42-date American Promise book tour that is believed to have inspired his eventual run for the presidency against Trump.
The Los Angeles agency also helped Biden to pick up a string of lucrative public speaking engagements, an avenue he could well explore once again.
The 46th president, who recently became a great-grandfather for the first time, has yet to spell out precisely how he plans to spend his post-presidency but did tell his supporters during his farewell speech last month that he and his wife Jill Biden would be “leaving office, but we’re not leaving the fight”.
CAA also has a relationship with the Obamas through their production company Higher Ground, which produced the Oscar-winning documentary American Factory (2019), and with Hillary Clinton, overseeing the release of her book Hard Choices (2014) among others.
The company has further ties with Democrats like Joe Manchin, Susan Rice and Beto O’Rourke, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Biden, who declined to contest last year’s election in favour of allowing his deputy Kamala Harris to run against Trump, left the Oval Office warning of the fragility of democracy and the growing influence of Big Tech over politics.
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” he commented in his final address from the White House on January 15.
He also warned that a “crumbling” free press and social media companies giving up on fact-checking the content they host threatens to let loose an “avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power”.
