Some on President Joe Biden’s team believe that former President Barack Obama — Biden’s former boss — may be pulling the strings behind the scenes in an effort to tank his re-election efforts.

According to a report aired during Thursday’s broadcast of “Morning Joe,” some within Biden’s inner circle and some Democratic officials believe that Obama is steering vocal criticisms of Biden in an effort to push him out of the 2024 presidential race.

WATCH:

Re: the growing criticism of biden, the Clooney op-ed etc, Morning Joe says:

“The Biden campaign and many Democratic officials do believe that Barack Obama is quietly working behind the scenes to orchestrate this” pic.twitter.com/Snh3eF870m

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) July 11, 2024

“I’ll just say one thing that we do have to underline here just so viewers can follow what’s going on behind the scenes is the Biden campaign and many Democratic officials do believe that Barack Obama is quietly working behind the scenes to orchestrate this,” host Joe Scarborough explained.

A report published Thursday morning by POLITICO’s Rachael Bade suggested that, at the very least, Obama and Clooney had discussed the state of the presidential race — and perhaps Biden’s fitness to continue in it — prior to the actor’s scathing New York Times op-ed calling for Biden to step aside.

“SCOOP: @BarackObama and George Clooney were in touch before the actor wrote his brutal op-ed suggesting Biden was a diminished man who should step aside from the presidency,” Bade posted via X. “Obama did not encourage or advise him on the op-ed, but he did not try to dissuade him either.”

SCOOP: @BarackObama and George Clooney were in touch before the actor wrote his brutal op-ed suggesting Biden was a diminished man who should step aside from the presidency.

Obama did not encourage or advise him on the op-ed, but he did not try to dissuade him either.

Read…

— Rachael Bade (@rachaelmbade) July 11, 2024

Clooney, who recently hosted a fundraiser for Biden and has been a long-time supporter of the president, published a piece on Wednesday saying that he believed it was time for the party to replace him.

“The one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can,” Clooney observed. “It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser 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.”