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NEW YORK.- A hollywood fundraiser Saturday night aimed at bolstering the president’s war chest Joe Biden became a platform for some of the most concerted and harsh attacks to date against the former president Donald J. Trump by the Biden campaign, with the participation of artists, Barack Obama and even Jill Biden, who attacked Trump’s ethics and his suitability to return to the White House.
Jill Biden, after being introduced by Barbra Streisandsaid she had to choose between her husband, “who honors the rule of law instead of trying to bend it to his own way,” and Trump, “who wakes up every morning worrying about one person and one person only: himself.”
“Trump has told us over and over why he wants the White House: to give himself absolute power and not have to be held accountable for his criminal actionsJill Biden continued. Her goal, she told the crowd, “was to destroy the democratic safeguards that stand in her way.”
Obama He invoked Trump’s felony convictions, something Biden has mostly avoided doing, to applause from the crowd.
“We have the spectacle of the candidate of one of the two main parties sitting in court and being convicted by a jury of his peers on 34 countsObama said. Listing a series of what he described as crimes committed by Trump, he noted that “his organization is being prosecuted for not paying taxes.”
The tenor of the event in downtown Los Angeles was different from another star-studded fundraiser just three months ago at Radio City Music Hall. The change came after Trump was convicted by a New York jury on May 30 of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, a verdict that produced a surge of contributions from his supporters that narrowed the fundraising gap between the two candidates and raised concerns among Democrats across the country, nowhere more so than in Los Angeles.
It also put a twist on a fairly common political event in Hollywood: Democratic candidates running to raise money from the heavily Democratic entertainment community.
George Clooney It was there. They were too Julia Roberts and Jimmy Kimmelwho asked Biden if the country had “Trump amnesia,” comparing those four years to “a colonoscopy” that people want to forget.
“Remember the pandemic,” Biden responded. “He said don’t worry, just inject some bleach.”
The event, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, home of the annual Emmy Awards, helped raise at least $28 millionhis aides said, eclipsing the $26 million the president raised three months ago at the Radio City Music Hall fundraiser.
The change in the political environment was one of the reasons for the different tenor of the evening. another was Jimmy Kimmelwho offered much more daring (and leading) questions than Stephen Colbert, the late-night talk show host who grilled Biden, Obama and Bill Clinton at the Radio City Music Hall event.
“You said you were fighting to restore the soul of America, and lately it looks like we might need an exorcism” Kimmel said at the beginning of the program, turning to Biden. “Is that why you visited the Pope?”
“Uh,” Biden said, laughing softly. “Yeah.”
When Kimmel mentioned repealing Roe v. Wade that Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices helped orchestrate, the audience hissed. “Don’t whistle, vote!” Obama said.
Biden said that “the next president is likely to have two more nominees to the Supreme Court”and added, referring to Trump, “the idea that if he is re-elected, he will appoint two more who wave upside-down flags…” and interrupted himself: “The Supreme Court has never been as unbalanced as it is today,” Biden said.
He reminded the audience of the events of January 6 and that Trump has recently used apocalyptic terms such as “bloodbath” and “retribution”.
Kimmel asked the president what he was most proud of having accomplished, and Biden said he thought the administration’s approach to the economy “is working.”
“Today we have the strongest economy in the world”Biden said, adding that “we try to give everyday people a fair chance.”
Outside the theater complex on Olympic Boulevard, a line of black-clad and helmeted police stood guard as about 100 protesters, wearing T-shirts that said “Cease Fire Now” and signs that said “Stop Homicide in Gaza,” shouted at the arriving guests.
“People are going to fund Biden’s re-election campaign while he arms Israel and finances a genocide against the people of Palestine“said one of the protesters, Jodie Evans, 70, a political activist and documentary producer who lives in Venice, a neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Despite the financial success of the event – the money raised set a record for a Democratic fundraiser, the Biden campaign said – it was a reminder of the risks politicians run when they try to mix Washington and Hollywood.
Biden shared the stage with George Clooneythe actor who had presented complaints to a White House official about the president’s criticism of the International Criminal Court.
The court had decided to request an injunction against the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu; his defense minister; and three Hamas leaders for illegal activities in waging a war in Gaza that has led to thousands of civilian deaths. Clooney’s wife Amal Clooney is a human rights lawyer who was part of an advisory panel that helped conduct the investigation.
Biden, who left a meeting of world leaders in Italy on Friday, skipping a farewell dinner to fly across 10 time zones to be in Los Angeles, made no mention of the complaints when he thanked his supporters during his remarks.
The room was packed with familiar faces from the entertainment world, led by Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood producer who has become one of Biden’s top behind-the-scenes advisers and who is chairing his 2024 campaign.
The New York Times
