President Joe Biden’s campaign says the shindig they booked at Radio City Music Hall featuring former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton is the “the most successful political fundraiser in American history.”
Before Biden was even joined on stage Thursday evening in New York by his Democratic forerunners in front of 5,000 paid attendees, with a sold out show and second row seats going for $500,000 a piece the campaign was apparently able to pull in an eye-popping $25 million for just the one event.
“This historic raise is a show of strong enthusiasm for President Biden and Vice President Harris and a testament to the unprecedented fundraising machine we’ve built,” Biden-Harris 2024 campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg said.
The evening event, hosted by comedian Mindy Kaling and featuring musical guests Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo, and Lea Michele, was billed as an “armchair conversation with the three presidents, moderated by none other than Late Night’s Stephen Colbert.”
Tickets went for a range of prices, starting as low as $225 and going up to half-a-million. The most expensive tickets came with a chance to join the current and former presidents for a photo.
Biden’s campaign took the opportunity to point out they were continuing a “trend of Team Biden-Harris absolutely lapping the Trump campaign in fundraising.”
“The Trump campaign raised $20 million in February, comically less than half the $53 million Team Biden-Harris raised in February. Today, the Trump campaign has less than $42 million cash on hand, which is less than one-third of the $155 million cash on hand that Team Biden-Harris has,” Biden’s campaign said in a statement, citing figures provided by the Federal Elections Commission.
The campaign, according to staffers, was able to raise more ahead of Thursday’s event than Trump managed through the entire month of February.
“Trump is ‘scrambling’ to raise cash as he lags behind President Biden in fundraising. Instead of closing the gap to fund his campaign, he is fundraising to pay his legal bills and relying on donors to finance his bond,” Biden’s campaign said.
Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesperson, said that the fact Biden is leaning on the former presidents for campaign energy is telling, despite how much money they may bring in.
“Crooked Joe is so mentally deficient that he needs to trot out some retreads like Clinton and Obama,” he said.
Herald wire services contributed.