Biden leaves LA for DC after record campaign fundraising swing

President Joe Biden departed from Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon, June 16, fresh off a record-breaking, Hollywood-propelled Democratic party fundraiser that raked in tens of million of dollars just months before the November election.

Biden and first lady Jill Biden left LAX Saturday afternoon aboard Air Force One, destination Joint Base Andrews, in Maryland, where he was to return to the White House after a long global trip.

Just before takeoff, he and the first lady disembarked from Marine One at 2:06 p.m. wearing a navy blue jacket and open-necked blue shirt with his aviators. He was also with his daughter Ashley, granddaughters Maisy and Naomi and Naomi’s husband Peter Neal. Maisy had her arm around Ashley’s shoulder.

Biden boarded Air Force One without speaking to the pool.

His trip started with a visit to Italy, for a G7 Summit, stopped at the Vatican, where Biden met with Pope Francis, and then journeyed to the Los Angeles, where he touched down early Saturday morning for 33-hours in the area.

Saturday night’s fundraising event at the Peacock Theater at downtown L.A.’s LA Live, was attended by more than 7,000 people, packing the room to see emcee and late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel interview Biden, as well as former President Barack Obama and Hollywood superstars Julia Roberts and George Clooney.

They all stressed the need to defeat former President Donald Trump in a race that’s expected to go down to the wire.

Kimmel asked the president what he was most proud of accomplishing, and Biden said he thought the administration’s approach to the economy “is working.”

“We have the strongest economy in the world today,” Biden said, adding “we try to give ordinary people an even chance.”

Even before it started Saturday night, the event had raised more than $30 million, making it the biggest fundraiser in Democratic Party history, according to a statement from party officials early Saturday.

That figure overtakes the $26 million Democrats raised from a fundraiser in March in New York featuring talk-show host Stephen Colbert moderating a panel discussion between Biden, Obama and former President Bill Clinton.

Tickets for the exclusive L.A. gathering began at $250, ranging as high as $500,000 for front-of-house seating, photo ops and an after-party.

Among the surprise attendees was actor/singer Barbra Streisand, actor/comedian Jack Black and actor/singer Sheryl Lee Ralph from the TV show “Abbott Elementary.”

Also in the house were Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, along with an array of Democratic elected officials. They included Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Manhattan Beach; Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-El Monte; Rep. Mark Takano, D-Riverside; Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Panorama City; Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach.

Along with Jill Biden, the crowd also included Biden’s son Hunter, who was found guilty last week in Delaware of lying on a federal firearms application.

A few hours before the start of the event, more than 100 pro-Palestine protesters were massed on the sidewalk near the Peacock Theater, where the event was set to take place. Many waved Palestinian flags and hoisted banners as attendees filed into the theater.

Dozens of police in riot gear were keeping protesters away from the barricades that surrounded the theater.

But the protest appeared to end later without incident.

With five months to the election, the fundraiser could be the last major event for Biden in the Southland, making it a critical moment for an incumbent dogged by continuing consumer complaints about inflation, the cost of groceries and gas, and rising division over the U.S. stance in the Israel-Hamas war.

Meanwhile, his opponent, presumptive Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, spent part of Saturday campaigning in the vital state of Michigan.

Trump used back-to-back stops in an effort to court Black voters in Detroit, including a conservative group that has been accused of attracting white supremacists, as the Republican presidential candidate works to stitch together a coalition of historically divergent interests in the battleground state.

He hosted an afternoon roundtable at an African American church in Detroit, then addressed the “People’s Convention” of Turning Point Action, a group that the Anti-Defamation League says has been linked to a variety of extremists.

Still, the money brought in from the L.A. event is sure to provide a timely infusion of cash in the final months of the campaign. Trump and the Republican Party outraised Biden in April, raking in $76 million as compared to $51 million for Biden and the Democratic National Committee that same month. Biden said he had a $192 million war chest at the end of April, the same as previous months, meaning he appears to be spending it as fast as it comes in.

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Biden leaves LA for DC after record campaign fundraising swing – Daily News

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