A Hollywood fundraiser on Saturday night aimed at boosting President Biden’s coffers was the stage for the Biden campaign’s most focused and harsh attack yet on former President Donald J. Trump, with celebrities, Barack Obama and even Jill Biden slamming Mr. Trump’s ethics and fitness to return to the White House.
Introduced by Barbra Streisand, Biden said the choice was between her husband, who “respects the rule of law and won’t try to bend the law to his way,” and Trump, who “wakes up every morning and only cares about one person – himself.”
“Mr. Trump has told us time and time again that he wants the White House to give himself absolute power and to protect himself from being held accountable for his criminal acts,” Biden continued. He told the crowd: “Mr. Trump’s goal has been to destroy the democratic safeguards that stand in his way.”
Obama mentioned Trump’s felony convictions – something Biden has largely avoided – and drew applause from the audience.
“We have the spectacle of a nominee of both major parties sitting in a courtroom being convicted by a jury of his peers on 34 counts,” Obama said, listing Trump’s litany of criminal offenses, noting that “his organizations are being indicted for not paying taxes. Not to mention everything else he says…”
President Biden took the microphone and said, “He’s not paying anything.”
The atmosphere at the downtown Los Angeles event was different from another star-studded fundraiser held just three months earlier 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. The verdict led to a surge in donations from Trump supporters, narrowing the fundraising gap between the two candidates and raising concern among Democrats across the country, but especially in Los Angeles.
It also added a twist to a fairly standard political event in Hollywood, with Democratic candidates showing up to raise money from the entertainment industry, which strongly supports Democrats.
George Clooney was also in attendance, as were Julia Roberts and Jimmy Kimmel, who asked Biden if the country was suffering from “Trump amnesia,” likening it to a “colonoscopy” that people would like to forget.
“Remember the pandemic,” Biden responded, “he just said, don’t worry, we’re just going to inject a little bit of bleach into it.”
The event, held at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater, home of the annual Emmy Awards, raised at least $28 million, topping the $26 million the president raised at a fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall three months earlier, white supremo Aides said.
The tone was already set when Ms. Streisand introduced the first lady.
“She’s the kind of neighbor that anyone would want, not the type that’s going to suddenly fly the American flag upside down,” Streisand said to laughter and a few groans. This was a reference to the incident when Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s wife, Martha Ann Alito, flew an upside-down American flag, a symbol of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, outside the couple’s Virginia home.
The shifting political environment was one reason for the night’s dramatic tone, but another was Kimmel’s questions, which were far more pointed and leading than those posed by late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert, who grilled Biden, Obama and Bill Clinton at the Radio City Music Hall event.
“You’ve said you’re fighting to restore the soul of America, but maybe you’re in need of an exorcism these days,” Kimmel said at the start of the show, before turning to Biden and asking, “Is that why you visited the pope?”
“Uh,” Biden said with a small chuckle, “yes.”
The audience booed when Kimmel mentioned the repeal of Roe v. Wade, which Trump appointees helped engineer. “Don’t boo! Vote!” Obama said.
“The next president will nominate two more Supreme Court justices,” Biden said, adding of Trump: “The idea that if he’s re-elected, he’s going to appoint two people who are waving the flag upside down…” Biden paused.
“The Supreme Court has never been more chaotic than it is today,” Biden said.
He reminded the audience of the events of January 6 and Trump’s recent use of apocalyptic language such as “bloodbath” and “retribution.”
Outside the theater on Olympic Boulevard, a line of helmeted, black-clad police officers stood guard, as about 100 protesters, wearing “Ceasefire Now” T-shirts and holding signs that said “Stop the killing in Gaza,” shouted at arriving guests. “You have blood on your hands!” they said.
“Biden is arming Israel and funding genocide against the Palestinian people, and yet people are trying to fund his reelection campaign,” said protester Jody Evans, 70, a political activist and documentary producer who lives in Los Angeles’ Venice neighborhood.
The event came amid growing anxiety about Biden’s strength as a candidate versus Trump, especially following the former president’s recent fundraising surge.
“The money thing made me nervous,” said David Mandel, a producer on the TV show “Veep” and a key Biden campaign supporter. “But it didn’t make me nervous because I was really confident. I’ve been nervous for eight years. So this is nothing new.”
Mandel took issue with the comparison between business leaders writing checks to Trump and the wealthy entertainment industry on display on Saturday.
“I’ll tell you what Julia Roberts and Jimmy Kimmel and Mark Hamill aren’t doing,” he said. “They’re not asking Joe Biden to cut the corporate tax rate. They’re not asking Joe Biden to cut the personal income tax rate.”
But while the event was a huge financial success — Biden’s campaign said the money raised was a record for a Democratic fundraiser — it served as a reminder of the risks involved when politicians try to mix Washington and Hollywood.
Biden shared the stage with actor Clooney, who had complained to White House officials over the president’s criticism of the International Criminal Court.
The court decided to seek arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defense minister and three Hamas leaders for alleged misconduct in waging the war in Gaza that has left thousands of civilians dead. Clooney’s wife, Amal Clooney, is a human rights lawyer and served on the advisory committee that helped conduct the investigation.
Biden, who flew across 10 time zones to Los Angeles on Friday after leaving a world summit in Italy and skipping a farewell dinner, did not mention those complaints when he thanked supporters in a speech.
The event was packed with familiar faces from the entertainment world, including Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, who has become one of Biden’s top behind-the-scenes advisers and will serve as his 2024 presidential campaign chairman.
It was a night of mingling between Hollywood royalty and Democratic Party leaders from Washington to Sacramento. Brian Lord and Richard Lovett, who run one of the city’s most powerful talent agencies, Creative Artists Agency, posed for photos with Clooney and Roberts. California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass were also in attendance.
But the stakes here were arguably higher than in New York: Republicans raised $50.5 million at a fundraiser in Palm Beach, Florida, in April and another $141 million in May. Tickets for Saturday night ranged from $250 a seat to $500,000 for a VIP package.
Chad Griffin, a Hollywood-based Democratic consultant and member of the party’s national finance committee, said the entertainment industry is rallying around the expectation that this will be the “most expensive election cycle in history,” given Trump’s fundraising success and evidence of his political support.
“I’ve never seen this city more motivated and engaged in a presidential election,” said Griffin, who began his political career in the Clinton administration. “I think it’s because there’s a clear understanding of what’s at stake and what it takes to win this November.”
Reid J. Epstein, Brooks Barnes George Johnston contributed reporting.
