The elite tech conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, was overshadowed by panic over Joe Biden’s declining cognitive abilities and anger at his backbencher, Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Katzenberg, a super-producer and media mogul who also serves as co-chair of the Biden campaign, was handling “damage control” at the special meeting, which is known for bringing media elites alongside tech giants to close deals.
Attendees at the event, hosted by investment bank Allen & Company from July 9 to 13, privately accused the film executive of being “duplicitous” about Biden’s mental health, sources told The Washington Post.
“Katzenberg wasn’t in the meeting much,” one attendee said. “The stories about him were the most negative they’ve ever been.”
Sources said the situation was far worse than when Quibi, the short-lived streaming platform that launched in 2020 and then folded, cost investors $1.75 billion in losses.
“[Biden’s] His condition is worsening…it’s not going to get better,” the attendee added. “He [Katzenberg] There was no apology at all… nothing.”
The attendees’ anger directed at Katzenberg underscores the fact that they privately (and publicly, in the case of donors like Netflix founder Reed Hastings and Endeavor superagent Ari Emanuel) acknowledge that they do not believe Biden can beat Donald Trump in the November election.
“What nobody disagreed with was [Biden] “President Trump is currently incompetent to run the country and should resign,” another source told The Post.
“This is a foregone conclusion…Trump is going to win the election. It’s so unfair and so scary.”
Even Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a former Arizona Democrat who switched to being an independent in 2022, acknowledged in a press conference that Biden was “incoherent” during a meeting she had with him about a year ago, sources told The Washington Post.
“No one was upset except for a few reporters,” a spokesman for Katzenberg told The Washington Post.
Representatives for Cinema and Allen & Co. did not respond to requests for comment.
The Post previously reported that Katzenberg, the Oscar-winning film mogul from “The Lion King,” had angered Hollywood executives and movie stars by failing to acknowledge Biden’s health issues during a recent Hollywood event where he raised about $30 million for Biden’s reelection.
Sources told The Post that they feel they were tricked into fundraising for a declining President Biden’s reelection without being told the true extent of his decline.
Much of the usual talk about mergers and acquisitions, the future of entertainment and the impact of artificial intelligence was overshadowed by concerns about the country’s political future.
“Usually there’s a lot of discussion about finances, but this time nobody was talking about the economy,” the source added.
While many were concerned about President Trump’s reelection, most attendees were realistic about political realities, and Elon Musk’s pledge on Monday to donate $45 million to Trump’s campaign every month until the election increased Trump’s chances of victory.
“The public doesn’t want Biden,” another source said, “but they’re accepting it.”
One prominent defender of Biden was LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, who said on the panel that he would no longer speak to venture capitalist Peter Thiel because he viewed his support for Trump as a “moral problem.” According to Puck’s report:.
Thiel, who was at the event, stood up to defend himself, but his tone became “aggressive and condescending,” an attendee told the news outlet. Thiel has not yet endorsed Trump in this election, but he was an early supporter in 2016 and pledged $10 million to Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, for the Ohio Senate in 2022.
Even though most agreed that Biden would inevitably remain the top contender, conference attendees didn’t stop discussing who else they would like to see in the White House.
“Everyone was talking about who Biden’s replacement would be,” the attendee added.
The results of an informal poll of who attendees want to lead the Democratic Party heading into the election were a blow to Biden.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was considered the front-runner, but sources told The Post that Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Maryland Governor Wes Moore, who spoke at the event, were identified as likely future Democratic candidates.
Raynom served as Rhode Island’s governor from 2015 to 2021, while Moore ran the Robin Hood Foundation, a popular charity for Wall Street donors founded by hedge fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones.
“She gets it,” one source said of Raimondo. “She was a big winner.”
Yet another source told The Washington Post that he recognized it would be foolish for anyone to try to go against Trump, who survived an assassination attempt over the weekend, adding: “Who wants to go against a martyr?”
