At a star-studded fundraiser for President Joe Biden in Los Angeles last month, George Clooney wasn’t the only one who came away concerned about the president.

Even before Biden made remarks that night, whispers of concern rippled through the audience at the Peacock Theater about the president who had just arrived from a long flight from Italy. Some of the biggest donors at the $30 million fundraising event, who had waited in line to take pictures with Biden, expressed unease at how the president looked and carried himself.

“He was less cogent than usual,” said one attendee, who was surprised that during a smaller meeting with donors before the main event, Biden barely spoke. Instead, this person said, he left virtually all of the talking to former President Barack Obama, which struck some guests as unusual for a loquacious politician like Biden.

Biden’s appearance in California struck attendees as starkly different from a fundraising gala he attended in March at Radio City Music Hall in New York, one Democrat guest told CNN, when Biden appeared on stage with Obama and former President Bill Clinton.

“There is a marked difference in the president from the spring to the summer,” a senior Democrat told CNN. “He’s just not the same.”

Back in Washington, there have been clear signs throughout his term of Biden being increasingly stage-managed, with lists of talking points, names of questioners and drawings of where he should walk presented to him by aides. Ahead of closed-door Cabinet meetings that Biden attends, it is customary for Cabinet officials to submit questions and key talking points that they plan to present in front of Biden ahead of time to White House aides, two sources with direct knowledge told CNN.

“The entire display is kind of an act,” one of those sources told CNN. “They would come and say, ‘Hey, the president is going to call on you about 25 minutes in, and ask this question. What are the bullet points you’ll respond with?’”

The second source, who echoed that same description, said when Biden attends Cabinet meetings, they are “not free-wheeling, and pretty well-orchestrated.” And the meetings themselves are infrequent, with one Cabinet secretary telling CNN they are uncertain of Biden’s condition because they so rarely see him.

In fact, the last full Cabinet meeting took place on October 2, 2023. Sources also said Cabinet meetings during the Obama years, which Biden attended as vice president, were not pre-scripted this way.

‘This is going to get worse’
Even as the oldest sitting president in history, at 81, Biden’s halting performance at CNN’s presidential debate last month came as a serious shock to most inside the White House and across the administration, including senior officials who have known the president for years and regularly have private conversations and meetings with him.

CNN talked to more than two dozen current and former Democratic officials, donors and longtime Biden allies, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid alienating Biden and discuss sensitive health matters verboten by the White House. While it’s clear the president had aged in the past year, none of them said they had seen the version of Biden, faltering and dazed, that showed up at last month’s debate.

In many of these conversations, sources blamed the president’s inner circle of advisers and family for what they said has become a painstakingly choreographed daily operation designed to prevent him from being in unscripted settings for extended periods of time.

“There’s this general sense of just, unbelievable holding your breath every time he does an event, every time he’s with people,” one top Democrat in close touch with Biden’s inner circle of advisers told CNN. This person added that some of those advisers have privately acknowledged: “This is going to get worse.”

That Democrat was blunt about how the president’s closest advisers have responded to any criticism or concerns expressed about the president – including his age and fitness: “Everyone who expresses any level of suspicion or contrary views? They call everyone and they beat the s*** out of them and say: ‘Stay on message.’”

At least one official involved in Biden’s debate prep at Camp David raised doubts about his ability after seeing how rehearsals were going, according to one source briefed on those preparations.

“It’s not like Biden’s inner circle didn’t know this,” one Democratic strategist close to the White House said of the extent of the president’s recent decline.

Campaign officials have rejected Clooney’s and other donors’ characterization of Biden at the Los Angeles fundraiser, with one senior Biden official who was in attendance telling CNN that while the president had in fact been tired that day, he was “animated and extremely present.”

As for Biden’s Cabinet meetings, the White House provided a statement from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack – who also served under Obama – saying what is described in this story is “standard practice for any administration” because “there should not be surprise in Cabinet meetings.”

White House spokesman Andrew Bates defended the breadth of Biden’s engagements with the press, his travels and record. “Joe Biden has always said that it is fair for reporters to ask about his age and has always confidently shown his values, agenda, intelligence, and determination to the American people,” Bates said. “Officials who meet with him frequently have spoken to his sharpness and command.”

Bates did not specifically offer comment on sources telling CNN that Biden’s closest advisers are unaccepting of criticism or concerns about the president, including his age and health.

‘Drip, drip, drip’
After two weeks of defiance following the debate, Biden faces a growing number of calls to bow out of the 2024 race. Many of the sources who spoke to CNN said they expected that the pressure will keep building, as more and more Democratic lawmakers signal he should go.

“Expect a drip, drip, drip,” said one former Biden White House official.

It’s a crisis of potentially historic importance, with growing fears among Democrats that Biden could drag down the party’s ticket, threaten the quest for reclaiming their House majority and further complicate efforts to hold onto Senate control.

By Tuesday of this week, as frontline campaigns reviewed their own internal polling, it became clear that the concerns were widespread – and carried signs of sweeping down ballot damage, according to four Democratic campaign officials involved in key races.

“Erosion. Across the board,” one of the officials said.