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

WASHINGTON Flying through the 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. money for his re-election campaign at a Hollywood fundraiser featuring George Clooney and Julia Roberts.

Biden went straight from the Group of Seven summit of wealthy democracies, where Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine took center stage, to Los Angeles and the glitzy rally held Saturday night 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 entertainment world's biggest luminaries have increasingly lined up to help Biden's campaign, hoping to boost fundraising and motivate potential supporters to mobilize before Election Day. vote against Trump.

But this time, hobnobbing with megastars means Biden will skip a summit in Switzerland on how 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.

In March, at a fundraiser for Biden at Radio City Music Hall, halfway across the country in Manhattan, late-night host Stephen Colbert interviewed 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 the event begins.

Trump raked in even bigger numbers.

He preempted Biden's New York event 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 contributions that poured in after Trump's guilty verdict during his criminal trial for secret money.

This post-conviction increase came after Trump and the Republican Party reported raising $76 million in April, far surpassing Biden and the Democrats' $51 million for the month and narrowing the fundraising advantage that Biden had 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.

During a joint appearance with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 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 also not attend the summit.

In another sign that his day job conflicts with his political goals, Biden's fundraising was expected to spark protests from pro-Palestinian activists angry at his administration's handling of 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.

–

Superville reported from Bari, Italy.