President Biden participated in a star-studded fundraiser with former Democratic Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton on Thursday in New York City in an event expected to raise more than $25 million for the president’s re-election campaign.
Thursday’s New York City fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall was hosted by actress Mindy Kaling and featured performances by several musical guests and artists, including Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michele. The event was capped off with a nearly hourlong discussion between Mr. Biden, Obama and Clinton moderated by “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert.
Obama accompanied Mr. Biden on the Air Force One flight from Washington, D.C., to New York earlier in the day.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and first lady Jill Biden also delivered remarks during the event.
Schumer touted several of Mr. Biden’s accomplishments and spoke of the potential for not just the president’s re-election, but for Democrats to control all three branches of government with key wins in the 2024 election.
“Re-elect Joe Biden as president, put Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker, keep me as Majority Leader, and the next four years will be better than this. You ain’t seen nothing yet,” the Senate majority leader said.
The first lady, joined by several other members of the Biden family, recalled that after she agreed to marry Mr. Biden, “He said, ‘Jill, I promise you, your life will never change.’ Well that, of course, turned out to be wildly untrue.”
She also spoke of the large sum raised for her husband’s campaign.
“This is the biggest fundraiser the DNC has ever held – the fundraiser to end all fundraisers – and we’ve raised a record amount,” Jill Biden said.
The fundraiser was interrupted by demonstrators protesting against the war in Gaza multiple times, and one who appeared to be yelling something about nuclear with Russia, throughout the night. One interruption came while Obama was discussing Gaza, to which he replied “You can’t just talk and not listen,” leading the audience to give him a standing ovation.
The campaign has billed the event as the “most successful political fundraiser in American history.”
During a swing through Texas earlier this month, the Biden campaign raised a combined $7 million from three separate fundraisers. A fundraiser for Mr. Biden in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday raised $2.3 million.
Mr. Biden’s largest single-day haul prior to Thursday came in the 24 hours after his State of the Union address earlier in March, when he raised $10 million, according to his campaign.
But Thursday’s staggering sum is a new record for the campaign, and it further illustrates the growing cash gap between Mr. Biden and his presumptive general election opponent, former President Donald Trump.
Trump raised $20 million in the whole month of February and $8.8 million in January. He’s also been dogged by legal bills and payments, with his campaign and the political action committees supporting him spending over $10 million in legal fees this year.
Mr. Biden’s campaign committees have more than double the cash on hand of Trump’s equivalent groups, $155 million for Mr. Biden and $74 million for Trump as of late March.
“Unlike our opponent, every dollar we’re raising is going to reach the voters who will decide this election — communicating the President’s historic record, his vision for the future and laying plain the stakes of this election,” said Biden-Harris campaign co-chair and Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg.
Trump’s campaign sent out two fundraising emails Wednesday mentioning Mr. Biden’s Thursday fundraiser, with one calling on “one million Trump supporters to donate to beat the “Obama-Clinton cartel” and the other reading, “We can’t lose to Obama!”