At Biden’s fundraiser, Hollywood and the Democrats allowed Trump’s attacks

A fundraiser in Hollywood on Saturday night designed to replenish President Biden’s war chest became the platform for some of the Biden campaign’s most concerted and harsh attacks yet on former President Donald J. Trump. Entertainers, Barack Obama and even Jill Biden attacked Trump’s ethics and his suitability to return to the White House.

After being introduced by Barbra Streisand, Biden said the choice was between her husband, “who respects the rule of law rather than trying to manipulate it to suit his own agenda,” and Mr Trump, “who wakes up every morning and only cares about one person: himself.”

“Mr. Trump has told us time and time again why he wants the White House – to give himself absolute power, to avoid being held accountable for his criminal actions,” Mrs. Biden continued. His goal, she told the crowd, “was to destroy the democratic protections that stand in his way.”

Amid applause from the crowd, Obama invoked Trump’s capital crime convictions – something Biden has largely avoided.

“We have the spectacle of the candidate of one of the two major parties sitting in court and being found guilty by a jury of his peers on 34 counts,” Obama said. He listed a number of Trump’s offenses and noted: “His organization is being charged with tax evasion. Let’s put aside all the other things he says -“

President Biden took the microphone: “He didn’t pay anything.”

The tenor of the downtown Los Angeles event was different from that of another star-studded fundraiser just three months ago at Radio City Music Hall. The shift came after Trump was found guilty by a New York jury on May 30 on 34 counts of falsifying business records. The verdict sparked a flood of donations from his supporters that narrowed the fundraising gap between the two candidates and sparked concern among Democrats across the country, nowhere more so than in Los Angeles.

In addition, a fairly common political event in Hollywood was given a special twist: Democratic candidates showed up to raise money from the predominantly Democratic entertainment scene.

George Clooney was there. So were Julia Roberts and Jimmy Kimmel, who asked Biden if the country was suffering from “Trump amnesia” and compared these four years to “a colonoscopy” that people would like to forget.

“Think about the pandemic,” Biden replied. “He said don’t worry, just inject yourself with a little bleach.”

At least $28 million was raised at the event at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, where the Emmy Awards are presented annually, his aides said, far exceeding the $26 million the president raised at a benefit event at Radio City Music Hall three months ago.

The tone was set early when Mrs. Streisand introduced the First Lady.

“She is the neighbor everyone wants, not the type who suddenly flies an American flag upside down,” Ms. Streisand said to laughter and some groans, referring to Martha-Ann Alito, the wife of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who flew an American flag upside down outside the couple’s Virginia home — a symbol associated with the Capitol riots of Jan. 6, 2021.

The shift in the political environment was one reason for the evening’s changed tone. Another was that Kimmel asked far more provocative – and suggestive – questions than Stephen Colbert, the late-night talk show host who questioned Biden, Obama and Bill Clinton at the event at Radio City Music Hall.

“You said you were fighting to restore the soul of America, and lately it does seem like we need an exorcism,” Kimmel said at the start of the show, turning to Biden. “Is that why you visited the Pope?”

“Uh,” said Mr. Biden, laughing quietly.

When Kimmel mentioned the overturn of Roe v. Wade, which Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices helped orchestrate, the audience hissed. “Don’t hiss, vote!” Obama said.

Mr Biden said that “the next president will probably have two more nominees to the Supreme Court,” adding, referring to Mr Trump: “The idea that if he is re-elected, he will appoint two more nominees who will wave the flag upside down is —” He trailed off.

“The Supreme Court has never been more out of balance than it is today,” Biden said.

He reminded the audience of the events of January 6 and that Mr Trump had recently used apocalyptic terms such as “bloodbath” and “retaliation”.

Outside the theater complex on Olympic Boulevard, a line of black-clad police officers wearing helmets stood guard while about 100 protesters – wearing T-shirts reading “Ceasefire Now” and carrying signs reading “Stop the Killing in Gaza” – shouted at arriving guests. “You have blood on your hands!” they chanted.

“People are funding Biden’s re-election campaign while he arms Israel and funds genocide against the people of Palestine,” said one of the protesters, 70-year-old Jodie Evans, a political activist and documentary film producer who lives in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The event came amid some concern about Biden’s strength as a candidate against Trump, particularly after the former president’s recent surge in fundraising.

“When we heard about the money, we got nervous,” said David Mandel, the TV showrunner who produced “Veep” and is a prominent Biden campaign supporter. “But it’s not like we were really confident and that made us nervous. We’ve been nervous for eight years. So this is nothing new.”

Mr. Mandel denied comparisons between business leaders writing checks to Mr. Trump and what was seen on Saturday from the wealthy entertainment industry.

“Let me tell you what Julia Roberts, Jimmy Kimmel and Mark Hamill are not doing,” he said. “They are not asking Joe Biden to cut the corporate tax. They are not asking Joe Biden to cut their personal income tax.”

But despite its financial success – the amount raised set a record for a Democratic fundraiser, Biden’s campaign said – the event was a reminder of the risks politicians face when they try to mix Washington and Hollywood.

Mr Biden shared the stage with Mr Clooney, the actor who filed a complaint with a White House official about the president’s criticism of the International Criminal Court.

The court had decided to issue an arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defense minister and three Hamas leaders for illegal activities in the Gaza war, which has killed thousands of civilians. Clooney’s wife, Amal Clooney, is a human rights lawyer who served on an advisory panel that followed the investigation.

Mr Biden, who left a leaders’ meeting in Italy on Friday and skipped a farewell dinner to fly across ten time zones to Los Angeles, made no mention of the complaints when thanking his supporters in his speech.

The room was filled with familiar faces from the world of entertainment, most notably Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood producer who has become one of Biden’s key behind-the-scenes advisers and is leading his 2024 campaign.

It was a night of socializing between Hollywood bigwigs and Democratic leaders from Washington to Sacramento. Bryan Lourd and Richard Lovett, who run the Creative Artists Agency, one of the city’s most influential talent agencies, posed for photos with Clooney and Roberts. California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass were also in attendance.

But the stakes were probably higher here than in New York. In April, Republicans raised $50.5 million at a fundraiser in Palm Beach, Florida, and another $141 million was raised in May. Saturday night’s tickets ranged from $250 per 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 expects this to be “the most expensive election cycle in history” given Trump’s success in fundraising and political support.

“I’ve never seen this city so motivated and engaged in a presidential election,” said Griffin, who began his political career in the Clinton White House. “And I think that’s because they understand what’s at stake and what it will take to win in November.”

Reid J. Epstein, Brooks Barnes and George Johnston contributed reporting.