George Clooney has called on US president Joe Biden to drop his bid for re-election amid concerns over his age.
The actor, a major Hollywood fundraiser for the Democrats, said Mr Biden was not the same person who won the White House in 2020 and should make room for another candidate.
Mr Biden has defied calls to step aside from Democrat colleagues following a disastrous performance against his likely Republican challenger Donald Trump.
He dismissed the debate on June 27 as a “bad night” and insisted he is the only person who can beat Mr Trump at the presidential election in November.
Clooney co-hosted a star-studded fundraiser for Mr Biden in downtown Los Angeles three weeks before the debate.
Writing in the New York Times, Clooney said that the “Joe Biden I was with at the fundraiser was not the Joe 'b 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."
"Was he tired? Yes. A cold? Maybe. But our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw," Clooney added.
A subsequent interview with ABC journalist George Stephanopoulos “only reinforced what we saw the week before,” he said.
The actor, who described himself as a lifelong Democrat, wrote in the New York Times: “We are not going to win in November with this president. On top of that, we won’t win the House, and we’re going to lose the Senate.
“This isn’t only my opinion; this is the opinion of every senator and congress member and governor that I’ve spoken with in private," he wrote.
“Every single one, irrespective of what he or she is saying publicly.”
The President on Monday called for an “end” to speculation over whether he would step down as Democratic nominee.
In a two-page letter addressed to Democrats, Mr Biden urged the party to focus on defeating Mr Trump in the November election.
“The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it's time for it to end,” he wrote.
“We have one job. And that is to beat Donald Trump.”
Mr Biden is currently hosting heads of state at the Nato summit in Washington, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
