President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are in California for six fundraising events and meetings this weekend, as they hope to rake in record-breaking campaign contributions
Here’s a Hollywood ending that President Joe Biden wants to bring to life: An incumbent facing tough polling numbers and questions about his advanced age overcomes a brash opponent to win a second term at the White House.
With strikes by writers and actors now over, Biden is beginning to make that pitch to the Southern California set in person. He and First Lady Jill Biden were attending six fundraising events and meetings between them this weekend in the Los Angeles area, asking some of the glitziest names in town to open their checkbooks for his reelection campaign.
“This is an incredibly successful night,” the president said at his first fundraiser kicking off the weekend on Friday night, joking that he didn’t want to talk long because he was “the only thing standing between you and Lenny Kravitz.”
Friday night’s event featured a performance by Kravitz was hosted by celebrity designer Michael Smith and his partner James Costos, and has already pulled in over $8 million, according to a person familiar with the matter, who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal campaign details.
“It’s just a normal Friday at our house,” Costos joked to the crowd of hundreds that filled his backyard to near overflow capacity. He added, “This is not just a Hollywood gathering, it’s more like a national event,” saying that supporters from around the country joined the event.
Biden used the event to lay into Donald Trump, calling him “the first losing president and candidate in history who refused to accept the result” of the 2020 race.
“He refused to show up at my inauguration. I can’t say I was disappointed,” Biden said. Then he added, to hoots, “My guess is he won’t show up at the next inauguration.”
Hundreds of protesters demonstrating against the Biden administration’s support for Israel during its war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip could be heard chanting and blowing whistles down the hill from the fundraiser, but it’s unlikely the president could hear them from the stage.
Some of the events will be public, and others will be private, over roughly 36 hours in California. But organizers say Biden should raise more this weekend than in any similar time frame since announcing his campaign in April and could potentially take in more than any presidential candidate has in greater Los Angeles this far out from Election Day.
“The pent-up excitement, enthusiasm is really unprecedented,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, a co-founder of DreamWorks Pictures and longtime Democratic presidential fundraiser in Los Angeles, who is one of the Biden campaign’s national co-chairs.
