Biden to join Obama in Hollywood star power salvo Saturday in Los Angeles – Daily News

President Joe Biden is coming to Hollywood on Saturday, surrounding himself with A-list celebrities led by late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel who will interview him in a live event, alongside the former president Barack Obama and megastars George Clooney and Julia Robert.

Biden's re-election campaign is hoping to top the result of a similar, celebrity-filled campaign in New York in March, when he was interviewed by Stephen Colbert, host of “Late Night with Stephen Colbert.” This event included Obama, former President Bill Clinton and several Broadway stars. This raised $25 million for Biden's campaign.

But many say there's nothing like a superstar gathering in Los Angeles to bolster the campaign's cash reserves. And California, a blue state seen as an easy win for the president, will play a familiar role for out-of-state candidates.

“California has been called the ATM of national politics,” Joel Fox, an assistant professor at Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy, said Thursday (June 13).

“They come to California to collect money and spend it elsewhere,” Fox added. “The state also serves as an ATM for the Republican side, it’s consistent.” He was referring to former President Donald Trump's recent fundraiser in Beverly Hills.

Trump and the Republican Party outperformed Biden in April, raising $76 million, compared to $51 million for Biden and the Democratic National Committee in the same month. Biden said he had a $192 million war chest at the end of April, similar to previous months, meaning he appears to be spending it as quickly as it comes in.

For example, on June 13, Biden launched a seven-figure ad in Spanish and English in battleground states about “reducing food and rent costs,” raising wages, and creating jobs, the campaign reported. Campaign ads rarely air in California.

Some wonder whether hobnobbing with wealthy celebrities sends the wrong message to black and brown voters who are struggling to make ends meet. Los Angeles County Democratic Party Chairman Mark Gonzalez disagreed.

“Celebrities support good union jobs,” he said, noting that Biden considers himself the most supportive union president in American history. “They contribute to the local economy. The film industry brings taxes to Los Angeles. He noted that some artists in Western countries support Trump. These include: Jason Aldean, Toby Keith and Kid Rock.

Kimmel grew out of a career in radio and, later, a half-hour show on Comedy Central, “The Man Show,” which featured testosterone-infused sketches of guys drinking beer, models bouncing on trampolines and toilet jokes. He was the host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on ABC-TV since 2003, and mixes humor and serious discourse.

On June 8, 2022, he interviewed President Biden on the show shortly after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed. The two men discussed gun background checks. Most recently, Vice President Kamala Harris was a guest.

Gonzalez said Kimmel is taking Biden's message to a younger voting bloc — those under 45. Although born in Brooklyn, he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada with his family as a child, where he attended college and became a DJ.

“His name is tied to the campaign,” Gonzalez said. “Growing up in Nevada, a swing state, may appeal to Nevada voters. Today in California, he is a validator and has a public who can support the president.

Kimmel has publicly feuded with Trump. On social media, the presumptive Republican nominee sharply criticized his performance as host of the 2023 and 2024 Oscar ceremonies. During the latest broadcast, Kimmel read the slam on social media, then ended with this quip: “Isn’t your prison term over?”

This Saturday event will take place after Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a secret payment to a porn star with whom he allegedly had sex. Prosecutors said it was a cover-up aimed at keeping 2016 voters from learning about the extramarital affair.

It also comes just days after the president's son, Hunter Biden, was convicted of three gun-related criminal charges, involving lying on a mandatory gun purchase form by claiming he didn't was not illegally using drugs or dependent on drugs, and illegally possessed the weapon for 11 days. .

Whether either issue will be raised by Kimmel remains a question. Kimmel's public relations team and Biden's campaign did not respond to emails. Gonzalez said asking questions about the president's son would be “rude” and “irrelevant.” “His son is not running for president,” he said.

A Biden campaign aide told People magazine that Kimmel would ask questions about democracy issues, abortion rights, Obamacare and the Republican Party's failed attempts to kill him. Kimmel could talk about his son, Billy, who underwent open-heart surgery shortly after his birth. On his show, he said no one should be denied health care because they can't afford it, and lifted the Affordable Care Act and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP ).

The event is selling tickets through donations through Eventbrite, at an as-yet-undisclosed location. Last week, it was reported that Biden would attend a fundraiser at the Peacock Theater at LA Live! The invitation stated that the campaign would accept tickets priced between $0 and $500,000.

Fox said mixing celebrities with presidential candidates can give a campaign a boost, but it doesn't really add new voters.

“I don’t think it moves the needle much,” he said. “It might have some effect, but ultimately it comes down to a question of policy and policy.”

Fox, who was a top aide to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, said that at a rally in San Diego, people lined up at a mall to catch a glimpse of the movie star, not the politician.

“The vote comes down to who is best for me in terms of the economy, who is best for me in terms of security, for immigration and foreign wars,” Fox said.

Celebrities and campaigns are not a new marriage. Ronald Reagan was a movie actor who successfully ran for governor and then president, he said.

“It’s nothing new for celebrities to get involved with presidential candidates. It goes back to that famous song of Happy Birthday from Marilyn Monroe to JFK,” Fox said.