WASHINGTON – Flying overnight across nine time zones, from southern Italy to southern California, President Joe Biden will shift focus from Russia’s challenge to Western unity to raising big money for his re-election campaign at a Hollywood fundraiser with George Clooney It is Julia Roberts.
Biden came straight out of Summit of the Group of Seven of rich democracieswhere the Russian president by Vladimir Putin The invasion of Ukraine took center stage in Los Angeles and at the glitzy gathering that unfolded Saturday night at the Peacock Theater. The trip was only interrupted by a stopover to refuel outside of Washington.
Former President Barack Obama is joining big stars Clooney and Roberts, and late night host Jimmy Kimmel will interview them all on stage. In a prior text message to donors, Roberts called it “a pivotal moment in the election.” Kimmel wrote in his own text that presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump “is going to hate this, so let’s go.”
Top luminaries in the world of entertainment have increasingly lined up to help Biden’s campaignhoping to provide a boost in fundraising and energize would-be supporters to turn out before election day against trump.
But hobnobbing with the megastars this time means Biden is skipping a summit in Switzerland about ways to break up Russia’s war in Ukraine. It’s a stark reminder that his responsibilities as president and his re-election effort can sometimes conflict.
“We will see unprecedented and record turnout from the world of media and entertainment,” Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood mogul, top Democratic donor and Biden campaign co-chair, said in a statement.
A Biden March fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall, across the country in Manhattan, featured host Stephen Colbert interviewing the president, Obama and former president Bill Clinton. It grossed a record $26 million. The Biden campaign says it is still counting receipts ahead of Saturday’s event and likely won’t release the expected total until closer to its start.
Trump drew even larger numbers.
He surpassed Biden’s New York event in April, raising $50.5 million at a gathering of major donors at the Florida home of billionaire investor John Paulson. The former president’s campaign and the Republican National Committee announced they had raised a whopping $141 million in May, supplemented by tens of millions of dollars in contributions that arrived after Trump’s decision. Guilty verdict in his criminal trial of silence.
This post-conviction leap came after Trump and the Republican Party announced raising US$76 million in April, far surpassing Biden and the Democrats’ US$51 million in the month and narrow a fundraising advantage Biden built early in the race.
The money race aside, Biden’s absence from the Ukraine summit means Vice President Kamala Harris is being sent on her own turbulent journey – leaving Washington for Switzerland and back in just over 24 hours.
In a joint appearance with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the G7 summit, Biden said Harris would be a strong US representative in Switzerland. But Zelenskyy previously suggested that Biden’s no-show was “not a strong decision.”
“I would like President Biden to be there in person,” he said late last month, predicting that Putin would “stand up and applaud” Biden’s non-coming. Putin and Russian representatives will not attend the summit either.
In another sign that his day-to-day work has clashed with his political goals, Biden’s fundraising was expected to draw protests from pro-Palestinian activists angered by his administration’s handling of the situation. Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
Such demonstrations have become common wherever Biden goes in recent months, including outside his fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall.
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Superville reported from Bari, Italy.
