A former adviser to President Obama broke his silence concerning President Biden’s mental fitness on Wednesday, just hours after a damaging op-ed by actor George Clooney was published in The New York Times calling on the president to quit the 2024 race.

‘It was not surprising to any of us who were at the fundraiser. I was there. Clooney was exactly right, and every single person I talked to at the fundraiser thought the same thing, except for the people working for Joe Biden, or at least they didn’t say that,’ Jon Favreau, a member of the group often referred to as the ‘Obama bros’ during his tenure in the White House, said during an appearance on CNN.

Favreau was citing the same fundraiser as Clooney in his guest essay where the actor claimed the Biden that showed up there was ‘not the Joe ‘big 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.’

Clooney wrote that Democratic Party leaders needed to stop trying to convince Americans they ‘didn’t see what we just saw,’ and accused them of ignoring ‘warning signs’ concerning Biden.

Favreau agreed, telling CNN, ‘I remember my wife, Emily, turned to me after the fundraiser and said, ‘What are we going to do?’ And I said, ‘Well, there is a debate in a week. Either he’ll do well in the debate, and we’ll think he was just tired because he flew all the way back from Europe, and that’ll be that, or he’ll be like this at the debate and then the whole country will be talking about it. So, here we are.’

Favreau’s blunt comments come just a day after he joined two of his fellow advisers and members of the ‘Obama bros’ in dedicating the majority of their latest ‘Pod Save America’ episode to ganging up on Biden following his poor performance in the first presidential debate and in a subsequent interview.

‘I thought it was bad, and, at times, very hard to watch,’ former Obama adviser Tommy Vietor said during the podcast, referencing Biden’s sit-down interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos last week that came as part of an effort by Biden to quell critics calling for him to exit the presidential race.

‘The debate was just a bad night. We all saw it,’ fellow former adviser Jon Lovett said. ‘The explanations are kind of vague… That doesn’t do enough to assuage our concerns about what we saw that night. Right? So, the explanations don’t offer anything.’

Biden has said he will not be leaving the 2024 race, and his campaign is continuing to go ‘full steam ahead,’ as one source put it to Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

Fox News’ Kristine Parks contributed to this report.

As former President Donald Trump narrows the field of his prospective running mates, a senior official from his previous administration says he may only ask two questions of each candidate before he makes his decision.

Former national security adviser John Bolton told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday that he thinks the questions that are most important to the presumptive GOP nominee are, ‘No. 1, do you think the 2020 election was stolen? And number 2, ‘If I told you to do what I told Mike Pence to do on Jan. 6, would you do it?”

It has been widely reported that three names remain in play for the Republican VP spot: Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Governor Doug Burgum of North Dakota and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. Vance and Burgum are considered front-runners with Rubio more of a long shot.

The former cabinet member said the right answers may move any of those candidates up in Trump’s view, but said at a personal cost, ‘it would be a great loss of integrity for any of those people if they said ‘Yes’ to both those questions,’ Bolton said.

‘I think the highest priority is absolute personal loyalty to him,’ Bolton said of Trump, reminding viewers that although former Vice President Mike Pence was loyal to the former President, on January 6, 2021 when Trump supporters descended on the Capitol, Pence was the one person among senior members of the administration that stood up to Trump saying he did the ‘right thing even when the rest of them failed.’ 

He went on to say of the current VP hopefuls, ‘I don’t know whether these three are capable of doing that, honestly,’.

Trump has hinted that he will announce his choice for running mate at next week’s Republican National Convention. The former president even said he has a good idea who it will be.

Bolton thinks his former boss shouldn’t make the announcement at the RNC next week while Biden’s campaign is still dealing with the question of his mental fitness and ability to lead the country, let alone beat his predecessor in a general election.

‘There’s no news that is gonna come out of the Republican National Convention, other than the vice presidential nomination. Why waste it in a week when the Democrats may still be talking about whether Joe Biden is competent to be president,’ Bolton said.

While it’s widely believed that Vance or Burgum will be the former president’s choice, Bolton warned, ‘I think what we have to remember with Trump is, it’s never final ’til it’s final and then sometimes it’s still not final,’ 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump campaign.

More than a dozen House Democrats locked in tough re-election battles this year have traveled to the White House more than 130 times collectively throughout the past three and a half years for various events.

Though specific explanations for each visit are not provided, the lawmakers’ trips range in date from February 2021 to March 2024, according to White House visitor logs reviewed by Fox News Digital.

The 16 Democratic lawmakers made a combined 133 visits to the White House on different occasions, with President Biden, whose mental acuity and age have been largely called into question ahead of the 2024 election. He was present for roughly 75% of the meetings or gatherings during each visit.

The vulnerable Democrats who have traveled to the White House are Reps. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut (18 times), Susan Wild of Pennsylvania (18 times), Emilia Sykes of Ohio (11 times), Mary Peltola of Alaska (10 times), Eric Sorensen of Illinois (nine times), Vicente Gonzalez of Texas (nine times), Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico (eight times), Yadira Caraveo of Colorado (seven times), Andrea Salinas of Oregon (seven times), Marcy Kaptur of Ohio (seven times), Frank Mrvan of Indiana (seven times), Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania (six times), Angie Craig of Minnesota (five times), Matt Cartwright of Pennsylvania (five times), Don Davis of North Carolina (four times), and Jared Golden of Maine (two times).

The 16 vulnerable lawmakers – many of whom have sought to put distance between the Biden administration’s agenda and their district-specific congressional bids – are all seeking re-election to seats that are currently ranked by the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election analyst, as either ‘Democrat Toss Up’ or ‘Lean Democrat.’

Though she has expressed opposition to parts of the Biden administration’s agenda in recent months, Peltola, for instance, has traveled to the White House roughly a dozen times since she joined Congress in September 2022 and previously claimed Biden’s ‘mental acuity is very, very on,’ describing him as one of the ‘smartest, sharpest’ people she met in D.C.

Asked recently whether she believes Biden is fit to serve as president, Peltola, who’s had a handful of small meetings with the president in recent years, told Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, ‘I don’t think there is any benefits to Alaskans weighing in on this issue.… My opinion is irrelevant.’

Peltola, who has endorsed Biden’s re-election bid and is seeking re-election in a state that heavily supported former President Trump in the 2020 presidential election, has faced criticism from her GOP challengers for refusing to take a stand against the Biden administration’s agenda. Earlier this year, she voted ‘present’ on the Alaska’s Right to Produce Act to roll back some of the 63 executive orders Biden has made against the state’s oil and gas economy.

A spokesperson for Peltola’s office, told Fox News Digital, ‘Since Rep. Peltola was elected, she’s attended and brought Alaskans to public events at the White House to share unique Alaskan perspectives with decision-makers, but her biggest motivation for going was her successful push for the Willow Project.’

‘She secured a meeting so she and Sens. Murkowski and Sullivan could advocate for the Willow Project. Because of Rep. Peltola’s advocacy, a project that’s been in limbo for decades will open hundreds of new oil wells and create good-paying Alaskan jobs. The last private conversation she had with the president was when he phoned to offer condolences shortly after her husband passed away last year in September,’ the spokesperson added.

Craig has also made several trips to the White House in recent years, attending events and meetings where Biden was in attendance. But in a split from several members of her party, Craig called for Biden to ‘step aside for the next generation of leadership’ in the 2024 race for the White House.

Craig’s comments, which referenced Biden’s performance at the debate, come as she seeks re-election to represent Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District in the House.

Like Craig, Golden, who attended a White House event with the president last December, has also looked to put some distance between himself and Biden in recent weeks.

‘Biden’s poor performance in the debate was not a surprise,’ Golden said in a Bangor Daily News op-ed. ‘It also didn’t rattle me as it has others, because the outcome of this election has been clear to me for months: While I don’t plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win. And I’m OK with that.’

Perhaps one of the most vulnerable Democrats seeking re-election, Golden represents Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, which supported Trump by a seven-point margin in the 2020 election.

Wild has also sought to put some distance between herself and Biden as she seeks re-election to represent Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, a seat considered a top pick-up opportunity for Republicans in the 2024 election cycle.

Though she hadn’t previously expressed concern about Biden’s fitness for office, Wild said this week that she shares Americans’ concerns ‘about President Biden’s electability at the top of the ticket,’ noting the ‘importance of this election.’

Like many of her colleagues, Wild has attended several meetings and events at the White House since 2021. In March, she attended a 12-person meeting with Biden at the White House.

Davis, who has attended at least one small meeting with the president at the White House, has also raised concerns about Biden’s electability, saying in a statement this month that if Biden ‘is going to stay in, he needs to step up.’

Other Democrats who have traveled to the White House in recent years to attend meetings and events with Biden, including Hayes, have been silent about the concerns that have been raised by members of their own party.

Hayes, who has traveled to the White House nearly two dozen times in the last three and half years and met with the president in several small gatherings, has been tight-lipped about concerns over whether Biden is fit for office.

Taking aim at Hayes, who previously said she was ‘not concerned about [Biden’s] age,’ the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) accused the congresswoman of locking ‘herself in her bunker’ and ‘refusing to outright answer’ whether Biden is fit for office.

‘Jahana Hayes thinks she can run and hide from Joe Biden but the truth is, she helped enable this massive cover up of Biden’s cognitive decline,’ NRCC spokesperson Savannah Viar said in a statement. ‘The question is simple: ‘Does Jahana Hayes think Joe Biden is fit to serve as President?”

Following his disastrous debate performance against Trump, Biden has repeatedly faced calls from members of his own party and the media to step aside from or withdraw from the 2024 presidential election.

The situation has plunged the party into crisis and continues to drive a wedge between Biden loyalists and elected officials in swing districts ahead of next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Biden’s top campaign aides have been working damage control with major donors, while the White House – and Biden himself – remain adamant he is the right man to lead the party against Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee.

Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan and Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

Officials with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) have warned that Russia has launched a plan to interfere in the 2024 election to bolster the chances of former President Trump being re-elected. 

In a briefing with reporters on Tuesday, ODNI officials said that Russia is the ‘preeminent threat’ to the election and that while China doesn’t plan to influence the outcome of the presidential race, the communist nation is being carefully monitored to see if it mingles in down-ballot races. 

‘It’s all the tactics we’ve seen before, primarily through social media, efforts using influential U.S. voices to amplify their narratives and other tactics,’ an official said. ‘And as far as who they’re targeting, what we can say today is, Russia is sophisticated enough to know that, targeting swing state voters is, particularly valuable to them.’

Officials said that the intelligence community expects Russia will increase its underhanded activities as U.S. election day gets closer in order to manipulate public opinion, underscoring the threat to America’s political landscape.

Although former President Trump was not named specifically, ODNI officials said that the Russian interference is mimicking what it says were similar preferences for U.S. presidential candidates seen in previous election cycles.

Russia is ‘undertaking a whole-of-government approach to influence the election, including the presidential race, Congress and public opinion,’ the official said, noting that Russia has grown ‘more sophisticated’ over the years in election interference. 

The Kremlin, officials said, is seeking to influence specific voting groups in swing states, as well as looking to promote divisive narratives and denigrate specific politicians, although no specifics were provided. 

An official said that artificial intelligence (A.I.) is making it easier for Russia – and other actors – to interfere in the U.S. political syatem, since the technology allows Kremlin operatives to mimic American Southern or Midwestern accents.

The Trump campaign and the Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital requests for comment. 

‘Foreign adversaries continue to experiment with and have adopted at least some generative AI tools to more quickly and cheaply generate authentic looking content tailored primarily for social media platforms that can target specific audiences including in the U.S.,’ an ODNI official said during the briefing, noting a heavy focus on its use by Russia and China.

The official added, China would be interested in down-ballot races down to the state and potentially local level. But to be clear, this is something we’re watching at this time, rather than, actively seeing it as we did in the 2022 cycle. Right now, our assessment is focused that China doesn’t perceive a benefit in supporting either candidate, or either party.’

The official said that China is pulling data from TikTok and other social media platforms used in the U.S. in order to spread their influence narratives, as well as to collect publicly available data on users and public opinion. 

Meanwhile, the ODNI official said that Iran is seeking to stoke social divisions among the U.S. population and ‘undermine confidence in the US democratic institutions around the elections.’

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said Tuesday that Iran is attempting through social media to covertly stoke protests in the U.S. against the war in Gaza. 

‘We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters,’ Haines said, adding that Americans protesting in good faith may not know they are being influenced by the Iranian regime. 

‘We urge all Americans to remain vigilant as they engage online with accounts and actors they do not personally know.’

Tuesday’s briefing came on the same day that the Justice Department nabbed an alleged social media ‘bot farm’ run by the Russian government that was being used to spread disinformation in the U.S. and other countries. 

The Justice Department said it seized two domain names and identified 968 social media profiles used by Russian actors in the Netherlands to create AI-enhanced social media profiles to promote messages in support of Russian government objectives. 

One of the fake messages posted on X, formerly Twitter, in 2023 included a video of Russian President Vladimir Putin justifying the country’s actions in Ukraine, although the video only had a handful of views. 

Fox News’ Liz Friden contributed to this report. 

The youngest son of former President Donald Trump made his debut on the campaign trail.

Barron Trump appeared at his father’s rally in Doral, Florida, on Tuesday night, where he stood for a sustained applause amid praise from Donald.

‘That’s the first time he’s done it. That’s the first time, right?’ Trump said as Barron accepted applause. ‘You’re pretty popular, he might be more popular than Don and Eric, we gotta talk about this. Hey Don, we gotta talk about this.’

‘So Barron, it’s good to have you. Welcome to the scene, Barron,’ Trump continued. ‘He had such a nice, easy life. Now it’s a little bit changed.’

The former president clarified that Barron is set to go to college in the coming semester and has ‘made his choice’ on school, but did not clarify where he would be attending.

Trump has previously praised his 18-year-old son as a ‘smart one,’ adding that the former first son likes to give his dad political advice. 

‘He’s seen it, he doesn’t have to hear it,’ the 2024 presumptive Republican nominee previously told Philadelphia’s Talk Radio 1210 WPHT after the host asked if he had advised Barron on ‘how nasty’ politics can be.

‘He’s a smart one,’ Trump continued. ‘He doesn’t have to hear much, but he’s a great guy. He’s a little on the tall side. I will tell you, he’s a tall one. But he’s a good-looking guy, and he’s really been a great student and he does like politics.’

At one point, the teenager was set to take an active part in Republician Party politics as a delegate for his father.

Republican Party of Florida chairman Evan Power said in May that Barron would serve as one of 41 at-large delegates from Florida to the national gathering, where the GOP is set to officially nominate his father as its presidential candidate for the November general election.

However, this plan proved premature after Barron’s mother — Melania Trump — shut down such plans that same month.

‘While Barron is honored to have been chosen as a delegate by the Florida Republican Party, he regretfully declines to participate due to prior commitments,’ Melania Trump’s office said in a statement following the announcement.

Fox News Digital’s Brie Stimon contributed to this report.

House Democrats are insisting Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is doing a steady job leading their caucus even as his lawmakers continue to defect from President Biden’s candidacy.

The high-profile Democrat’s backing is critical to Biden right now as he insists to critics and allies alike that he can beat former President Trump and serve another four years.

Jeffries held a listening session with Democrats on Tuesday morning where people aired both their concerns and support for Biden. 

Lawmakers who left the meeting were largely tight-lipped, but those who spoke to reporters admitted that no consensus was reached on how their caucus would handle Biden. But hours after the meeting, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., became the seventh House Democrat to publicly urge Biden to step down.

Those public declarations have drawn rebukes from Biden supporters like Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., who accused his fellow Democrats of ‘intra-party mixed messaging’ that was ‘deeply self-destructive.’

Asked if any of that came from a lack of direction from Jeffries, however, Torres told Fox News Digital, ‘Leader Jeffries is handling the situation as well as he can.’

‘If President Biden is going to remain the Democratic nominee, it’s counterproductive for members to express no confidence in him. We have no choice but to make the best of a complicated situation and do everything we can to ensure that he can win. So I insist on viewing it pragmatically,’ Torres explained.

Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., who earlier this week released a statement disputing reports that he spoke out against Biden’s candidacy, similarly denied that Jeffries had any blame for the discord.

‘I would never put any of that on him. No, it’s a wide and diverse caucus. It’s a big tent. People are going to have different opinions, but he’s very good at bringing us together,’ Beyer told Fox News Digital.

Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., told Fox News Digital that Jeffries was handling the situation ‘the way it should be handled.’

‘And that is that everybody, you know, everybody should be heard. I think that’s important,’ McGovern said.

Reps. Brittany Pettersen, D-Colo., Deborah Ross, D-N.C., Glenn Ivey, D-Md., and Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., also backed Jeffries. 

Others, like Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., and Mark Takano, D-Calif., did not respond to the question when asked by Fox News Digital.

Despite Jeffries’ backing, however, pressure from House Democrats continues to trickle down onto the 81-year-old president. 

While just seven House lawmakers in his party have asked Biden to step aside, more have expressed their concerns over his abilities.

Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine., and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., have warned they don’t think Biden can beat former President Trump.

And on Tuesday evening, Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, became the first member of the Congressional Black Caucus to voice hesitation about Biden.

‘What I said this morning and expressed to my colleagues, particularly from members on the front line, is that I think they need to do whatever it is they need to do in order to come back and be re-elected and so if they need to, you know, distance themselves, then that’s what they need to do,’ he told CNN.

Jeffries, for his part, told reporters on Monday, ‘I made clear the day after the debate, publicly, that I support President Joe Biden and the Democratic ticket. My position has not changed.’

The White House is playing cleanup after press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday that a meeting between White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor and Dr. Kevin Cannard, a renowned neurological and Parkinson’s disease expert, was not related to care for President Biden. 

The White House now says the Jan. 17 meeting between O’Connor and Cannard at the White House was for a neurological exam of Biden, the results of which were later reported as part of his annual physical more than a month later. O’Connor reported the results on Feb. 28, stating that an ‘extremely detailed neurological exam’ did not show Biden had signs of Parkinson’s or any cerebellar or other central neurological disorder.

At Tuesday’s White House press briefing, a reporter for The Associated Press asked for clarification on a letter sent Monday night by O’Connor. 

‘It didn’t seem to explicitly describe the nature of Dr. Cannard’s meeting with Dr. O’Connor. So can you say whether that one meeting was related to care for the president himself?’ the reporter asked. 

‘I can say that it was not,’ Jean-Pierre said. 

Jean-Pierre insisted she had already confirmed from ‘behind this lectern’ that three meetings occurred and that the doctor was a ‘neurologist,’ though not Cannard’s name until O’Connor released it Monday. 

She said she needed permission from Cannard and also from the president before putting that information out. 

‘And the reason why is because we do not share private information. That is something that we respect. And we wanted to make sure that we protected our consultants here that work with the White House medical unit, their security as well,’ she told reporters from the podium Tuesday. 

In a later statement, Jean-Pierre said the question did not mention the date, which apparently caused her confusion. However, the question was about the meeting between O’Connor and Cannard, and according to the visitor logs, it was the only meeting between the two between July 2023 and this past March – a period that has come under scrutiny because Cannard had visited the White House eight times in that time frame.

The other seven visits by Cannard have Megan Nasworthy listed as the visitee.

‘Because the date was not mentioned in the question, I want to be clear that the January 17th meeting between Dr. O’Connor and Dr. Cannard was for the President’s physical. It was one of the three times the President has seen Dr. Cannard, each time for his physical. The findings from each exam have been released to the public,’ the statement said. 

Fox News is told Jean-Pierre proactively followed up with the AP to volunteer the information. 

That statement is not the first time in the days following Biden’s debate debacle – which triggered a new round of concerns about the 81-year-old president’s fitness to serve – that the White House has had to later clarify answers to questions about the president’s health.

Last week, Jean-Pierre said Biden ‘did not get checked out by the doctor’ for a cold that was noticeable during the June 27 debate. However, Biden later said in a private meeting with Democratic governors that he had been checked out by his doctor after the debate concluded. Jean-Pierre said she meant Biden did not get a full medical exam and that the president did indeed have a ‘check-in’ with his doctor, which he does a couple of times a week.

Additionally, on Monday night, the White House released a statement from O’Connor describing the nature of Cannard’s visits to the White House after Jean-Pierre earlier in the day declined to confirm the name of the doctor or say why he was going to the White House. It also confirmed that Cannard had been the neurologist who had examined Biden in his three physicals during his presidency. Jean-Pierre contended on Tuesday that ‘a lot of the things I said right here in this briefing room’ were later restated in the letter from O’Connor on Monday night.

Still, Jean-Pierre said this week that she and other White House press aides are doing ‘our best in this briefing to provide the information that we have.’

‘I will be the first one to admit: Sometimes I get it wrong. At least I admit that,’ she said. ‘And sometimes I don’t have the information. And I will always, always admit that.’

Jean-Pierre’s clarification also shows how parts of the president’s annual physical, which is generally conducted at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, can be performed over a longer period rather than just one day at the suburban Maryland hospital.

When O’Connor released the results of Biden’s physical on Feb. 28, he wrote that ‘an extremely detailed neurological exam was again reassuring in that there were no findings which would be consistent with any cerebellar or other central neurological disorder, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s or ascending lateral sclerosis, nor are there any signs of cervical myelopathy.’ The letter had not stated when the neurological exam had been conducted or where it took place.

The repeated presence of Cannard in the White House visitors logs also attracted attention because of the doctor’s expertise in movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. However, Jean-Pierre definitively said this week that Biden has not been treated for Parkinson’s disease, nor is he being treated currently or taking medication for it.

Cannard has been the neurology consultant to the White House medical unit for a dozen years. O’Connor also said in a letter released Monday night that Cannard has held regular neurology clinics at the White House ‘in support of the thousands of active-duty members assigned in support of White House operations.’

Fox News’ Patrick Ward and The Associated Press contributed to this report.