Celebrities and elites from the highest echelons of American society and business are pouring huge donations into President Biden’s reelection campaign, threatening to tarnish the 46th president’s down-home “Scranton Joe” or “Amtrak Joe” image.
Biden took the stage at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles earlier this month, flanked by former President Barack Obama and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. According to a Vanity Fair report, audience members, performers, and other attendees at the event to support Biden included Hollywood celebrities such as George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Barbra Streisand, Jack Black, Jason Bateman, Kathryn Hahn, and Mindy Kaling. The star-studded fundraiser was a financial success for the president’s reelection campaign, raising $30 million, breaking the previous Democratic fundraising benchmark, the Biden campaign announced earlier this month.
But the splashy fundraiser comes at a time when inflation continues to squeeze average American families, and the president is presenting himself to voters as a stalwart of the low-income earners from Scranton, Pennsylvania.
“2024 will be a choice between two very different economic visions for America: Donald Trump, who sees the world from his Mar-a-Lago country club, or President Biden, who sees it from his kitchen table in Scranton,” Biden’s campaign website says.
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President Biden shares a laugh with former President Barack Obama during a campaign fundraiser at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on June 15, 2024. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
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Former President Donald Trump and UFC President Dana White attend the UFC 295 event at Madison Square Garden on November 11, 2023 in New York City. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
The 2023-2024 election cycle is expected to be the most expensive in history, with Forbes magazine reporting that political ad spending will exceed $10 billion across the White House and congressional races.
After Biden announced in April last year that he would seek reelection, saying he would “get the job done,” the Biden-Harris campaign stepped up fundraising in anticipation of a rematch with former President Trump.
President Biden speaks with host Jimmy Kimmel during his first appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in Hollywood, California, on June 8, 2022. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
Last year, as the Hollywood writers strike raged, Biden enlisted Broadway stars to raise funds for his campaign, with actors including Sara Bareilles, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ben Platt performing at a star-studded fundraiser on his behalf in September. The Associated Press reported.
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As 2023 drew to a close, Biden’s fundraising campaign focused on Hollywood. Singer James Taylor performed at a fundraiser in Boston in December, after which the president flew to Los Angeles for a series of fundraisers featuring film director Steven Spielberg, director and actor Rob Reiner, producer Shonda Rhimes, and politicians including California Governor Gavin Newsom and Representatives Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff. Singer Lenny Kravitz also performed at the event, the Los Angeles Daily News reported at the time. Tickets cost anywhere from $1,000 to $500,000 a pop.
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Vice President Kamala Harris also attended lavish fundraisers last year, including one on Martha’s Vineyard. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Vice President Kamala Harris also attended a lavish fundraiser with the “Suits” actor on Martha’s Vineyard last year. Wendell Pierce Billed as a “grassroots” event, tickets ranged from $50 to $10,000.
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Hollywood stars and executives were among the first to boost Biden’s campaign coffers ahead of an election cycle that began in earnest this year. Jeffrey Katzenberg, Chairman of Walt Disney StudiosLin-Manuel Miranda, for example, donated $889,600 to Biden last year, Deadline reported last year. Other Hollywood and tech industry leaders have also donated large sums to the Biden Victory Fund, the Democratic National Convention and other Democratic efforts in 2023. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman donated $200,000, actor and voice actor Seth MacFarlane donated $100,000 and music composer Michael Sklof donated $100,000, the outlet reported.
The Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee announced earlier this year that they had raised $97 million in the final three months of 2023. As PBS reported: The move was “boosted” by Biden’s ostentatious events with Hollywood stars.
President Biden, former President Obama, and former President Clinton attend a campaign fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall in New York on March 28, 2024. (Reuters/Elisabeth Franz)
The Biden-Harris campaign continued to court celebrities and the wealthy this year. The event, held at Radio City in New York City in March, was hosted by actress Mindy Kaling and featured late-night host Stephen Colbert facilitating a conversation between Biden, Obama, and former President Bill Clinton. Special guests including Queen Latifah, Lizzo, and Ben Platt also attended, according to media reports. The campaign said the event raised more than $26 million.
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Harris also headlined a fundraiser in her native California earlier this year, joining clean-energy leaders in San Francisco before stopping by the homes of author Robert Mailer Anderson and Oracle heir Nicola Minor in the city’s Pacific Heights neighborhood. The Pacific Heights fundraiser raised more than $100,000 per attendee and also featured support from theater director Jonathan Mosconi and Mayor London Breed, and a performance by singer Carole King. San Francisco Standard It was reported at the time.
Trump, whose real estate background and success in reality TV established him as a Hollywood powerhouse before he entered politics, hosted high-profile fundraisers during this election but rarely met with the movie elite. Instead, he hosted lavish events at his Mar-a-Lago estate, met with residents of wealthy neighborhoods like Atlanta’s Buckhead and attended high-profile public events at Madison Square Garden, but not for the purpose of raising funds.
President Biden speaking in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damien Dvarganes)
Biden previously held a big fundraising advantage over Trump in the 2024 presidential race, but a recent windfall following Trump’s conviction in a New York criminal trial has effectively erased Biden’s lead, Fox News Digital reported this weekend. Trump and the Republican National Committee outraised Biden and the Democratic National Committee for a second consecutive month in May, despite the pair not yet having begun buying ads for the general election. Meanwhile, the Biden campaign has spent at least $65 million on ad buys.
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“Only America’s elite Hollywood celebrities are endorsing Joe Biden’s failed campaign,” Trump spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said in a statement earlier this month.
Biden’s lavish fundraising was also criticized in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week by Fox News contributor Daniel Henninger, who noted that while Democrats have benefited from Hollywood money for decades, the 2024 election cycle could be a game-changer for left-leaning parties as inflation continues to soar.
Demonstrators rallied before a fundraiser for President Biden at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on March 28, 2024. (Alex Kent/Getty Images)
“The Democratic Party’s reliance on celebrity has been just noise for decades, not an issue until now. This election is close, and with cost of living at the forefront, every vote in battleground states deserves attention. At this critical juncture, the fuss over a sitting president jetting off from Europe to Hollywood is just the kind of thing Biden and his party need. He’s Hollywood Joe,” Henniger wrote.
“But note that on the day Biden was tapping the ATM in Hollywood, Trump was campaigning at a black church in Detroit. It is becoming harder to suppress the reality that polls are reporting that the former host of ‘The Apprentice’ is peeling away layers of the traditional Democratic coalition, including black, Hispanic, younger Americans and perhaps even Jewish voters. The Democratic base once had some semblance of a common identity, but no longer. And it’s too late to fix that.” He continued:.
The Biden campaign faced criticism last month when actor Robert De Niro headlined a campaign event outside the Manhattan courthouse where Trump was charged and ultimately convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Actor Robert De Niro points at a supporter of former President Trump after a press conference outside Manhattan Criminal Court on May 28, 2024 in New York City. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Donald Trump not only wants to destroy “He’s not just destroying cities, he’s destroying countries and potentially the world,” De Niro said at a news conference, joined by Biden and Harris at the campaign rally.
De Niro’s comments led his supporters to label him a “failed actor” and “trash” and accuse him of being a “pay-for-play for the DNC.”
“You’re such an idiot,” De Niro yelled at one pro-Trump protester.
The incident was subsequently slammed by critics on social media as a “terrible reflection on the Democratic Party” and compared to the satirical political comedy show “Veep.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Biden campaign for comment on the recent star-studded fundraiser and whether it could tarnish the president’s “Scranton Joe” image as inflation continues to soar during this election cycle.
