Biden goes straight from the G7 to Hollywood fundraising, balancing geopolitics with his re-election bid

WASHINGTON (AP) Flying all night across nine time zones, from southern Italy to southern California, president Joe Biden will turn his attention away from challenging Russia's western unity to focus on raising large sums of money for his re-election campaign at a Hollywood fundraiser featuring George Clooney And Julia Robert.

Biden went straight from Group of Seven Summit of Rich Democracieswhere the Russian president Vladimir Poutine The invasion of Ukraine took center stage in Los Angeles and at Saturday night's glitzy rally at the Peacock Theater. The trip was interrupted only by a refueling stop outside Washington.

Former President Barack Obama joins megastar headliners Clooney and Roberts, and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel will interview them all on stage. In an earlier text message to donors, Roberts called this period a crucial moment in the election. Kimmel wrote in his own text that presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump would hate this, so let's do it.

The biggest luminaries in the world of entertainment have increasingly lined up to help Biden's campaignhoping to boost fundraising and inspire potential supporters to mobilize before Election Day against Asset.

But hobnobbing with megastars this time means Biden is skipping a summit in Switzerland on ways to end Russia's war in Ukraine. It's a stark reminder that his responsibilities as president and his re-election efforts can sometimes be contradictory.

We are going to see an unprecedented and record turnout from the media and entertainment world, Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood mogul, top Democratic donor and co-chairman of Biden's campaign, said in a statement.

A Biden fundraiser in March at Radio City Music Hall, on the other side of the country in Manhattan, featured late-night host Stephen Colbert interviewing President Obama and former President Bill Clinton. It raised a record $26 million. The Biden campaign says it is still counting revenue ahead of Saturday's event and likely won't release the expected total until after it begins.

Trump raked in even bigger numbers.

He preempted Bidens event in New York 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 raised a whopping $141 million in May, supplemented by tens of millions of dollars in post-Trump contributions. guilty verdict in his criminal trial for money.

This post-conviction bump came after Trump and the Republican Party announced it raised $76 million in April, far surpassing Biden and Democrats' $51 million for the month and reduce a fundraising advantage that Biden built earlier in the race.

The money chase aside, Biden's absence from the Ukraine summit means Vice President Kamala Harris is deployed on her own whirlwind trip leaving Washington for Switzerland and returning in just over 24 hours.

In a joint appearance with the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky At the G7 summit, Biden said Harris would be a powerful U.S. representative in Switzerland. But Zelenskyy had previously suggested that Biden's non-participation was not a strong decision.

I would like President Biden to be personally present, he said late last month, predicting that Putin would stand up and applaud Biden not coming. Putin and Russian representatives will not attend the summit either.

In another sign that his day job is colliding with his political goals, Biden's fundraising was expected to spark protests from pro-Palestinian activists angry at his administration's handling of affairs. Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

Such protests have become common everywhere Biden goes in recent months, including outside his fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall.

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Superville reported from Bari, Italy.