Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
- A Biden aide suggested Biden has greater stamina than George Clooney, a CNN correspondent said.
- The aide said that the president had stayed three hours longer than Clooney at a recent fundraiser.
- This was the fundraiser mentioned by Clooney in his devastating op-ed.
The Biden campaign reportedly hit back at George Clooney's devastating op-ed on Wednesday by suggesting that the president had more energy than the actor.
Clooney's op-ed, published in The New York Times, expressed his commitment to the Democratic Party's values as well as his personal affection for President Joe Biden — but still called for Biden to step down.
"We need a new nominee," Clooney wrote.
He described seeing Biden at a recent fundraiser, where he said the president "was the same man we all witnessed at the debate."
Clooney and Biden attended a star-studded fundraiser in Los Angeles on June 15, just days before Biden's disastrous debate with former President Donald Trump.
That performance has led to questions about Biden's health and calls for him to step down as the Democratic Party nominee.
But according to CNN White House correspondent Kayla Tausche, a Biden campaign aide pushed back on Clooney's piece.
Speaking to CNN's Jake Tapper, Tausche said that a campaign official who had been at the same fundraiser told her that "George Clooney left three hours before the president."
"Clearly the gloves are off," she added.
Asked to clarify what that was meant to convey, Tausche gave her interpretation: "The point of that is to suggest that Biden's stamina is better than Clooney's, and Clooney didn't have eyes on the entire event," she said.
Tausche also said that the aide had pointed her toward Biden's "aggressive" campaign and fundraising schedule, which is set to take in stops in Michigan, Nevada, Texas, California, and Colorado.
The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment, sent outside of normal working hours.
Trump has also weighed in on Clooney's intervention, calling him a "fake movie actor" in a post on Truth Social.
While Trump didn't question Clooney's views about Biden's fitness for the campaign, he accused Clooney of using a Democratic "talking point" in the op-ed, in saying that Biden had "saved democracy."