Biden under pressure from Hollywood's wealthy donors

What if Hollywood, a key Democratic financial pillar, cut off Joe Biden's campaign funding? That possibility now looms large after actor George Clooney and other wealthy donors urged the US president to withdraw from the White House race.

"I love Joe Biden. But we need a new nominee," Clooney wrote in a column in the New York Times on Wednesday, after Biden's disastrous performance in a televised presidential debate against Republican rival Donald Trump rekindled fears around the 81-year-old's fitness for office.

The statement dealt a serious blow to Biden, coming just three weeks after Clooney headlined a major fundraiser in Los Angeles for his reelection campaign.

At the gala, the president was able to raise more than $30 million in one evening, a record amount that showcased the industry's might in financing the American left.

"If all these big donors pull out, he's sunk," said Steve Ross, professor of history at the University of Southern California who wrote a book on the influence of Hollywood on American politics. "Hollywood is still the one shop stop for candidates."

Clooney is not the only one worried. In recent days, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, Walt Disney's granddaughter Abigail and Hollywood mega agent Ari Emanuel, whose brother Rahm served as Barack Obama's chief of staff -- said they would not be financing Biden citing concerns over his age.

Historic influence

Even though the millions generated by the American entertainment industry are essential to both parties, Hollywood's hearts and wallets have predominantly leaned left for decades.

Both Bill and Hillary Clinton relied on Hollywood support in their respective White House bids. In 2007, Obama famously benefited from the "Oprah Winfrey effect," receiving a boost to his profile after the star TV host organized a dinner to promote the man who was then still only a senator.

During the presidential race in 2020, the entertainment industry gave $104 million to Democrats compared to $13 million to Republicans, according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit that tracks campaign financing.

It wasn't always that way.

In the 1980s, Republican president Ronald Reagan, himself a former actor, enjoyed the support of stars like Frank Sinatra and relied heavily on Hollywood's coffers.

"Hollywood actually started as a conservative base for the Republican Party," Ross told AFP.

"When Louis B. Mayer took over MGM Studios in the late 20s, he turned it into a fundraising publicity wing for the GOP, and he raised enormous amounts of money," Ross said, referring to the Republican party.

The four Warner brothers, on the other hand, supported Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s with their studio and their stars.

It was the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960 that marked Hollywood starting to shift to the left, as the era of blacklisting actors for suspected communist sympathies came to an end.

"It was a new era of free speech for movie stars who weren't going to be blacklisted if they said anything deemed too radical," the expert said.

Just hitting pause?

But even with its cultural and financial prowess, does Hollywood really have the power to axe Biden from the race?

Clooney's New York Times op-ed "is another pressure point, for sure," said Steven Maviglio, a Democratic adviser who worked with former California governor Gray Davis.

But Maviglio believes the panic of certain donors to be "a temporary phenomenon."

"If the president decides to stay and it becomes clear that it's going to be Biden and Trump, Hollywood will be right back where they started, supporting Joe Biden," Maviglio said, adding that the industry's defections are not yet numerous enough to end Biden's campaign.

Everybody's eyes are now on billionaire Jeffrey Katzenberg, a former Disney executive and co-founder of Dreamworks, who organized the June gala fundraiser for Biden.

Since Biden's disastrous debate, Katzenberg has been heavily criticized, but has himself remained silent.

"He's the engine behind the machine. So if he stops, that's significant," Maviglio said.