It was a rousing reelection stump speech from President Biden, delivered to a theater full of enthusiastic supporters, where he jabbed at the Republican frontrunner, former President Donald Trump.
But you won’t see a clip of it on cable news anytime soon. Biden was speaking at a private fundraising event where cameras aren’t allowed — one of four such events he attended in Manhattan this week.
“Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans are determined to destroy American democracy,” Biden said at one of the fundraisers, where about 1,500 donors shelled out $250 to $7,500 to hear him speak alongside Broadway stars like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Josh Groban.
“I will always defend, protect, and fight for our democracy. That’s why I’m running,” Biden said.
While the president’s public speeches focus on selling his administration’s accomplishments, these closed-door donor events are where he’s crystalizing his reelection pitch.
Biden says Trump seems ‘destined to be the nominee again’
In his fundraiser remarks, Biden makes clear that defending democracy will be a central theme in his reelection campaign, just as it was in 2020 and in the 2022 midterms.
“I’m running because we’ve made progress, but our democracy is still at stake,” Biden said. “I’m running because our most important freedoms — the right to choose, the right to vote, the right to be who you are, love who you love — these basic rights are being attacked. They’re being shredded.”
Biden rarely directly mentions Trump in public speeches. But to donors, he is far more direct.
“I don’t believe America is a dark, negative nation — a nation of carnage driven by anger, fear and revenge,” Biden said. “Donald Trump does.”
Biden gave a similar take on Trump to a more intimate event a couple days later, when about 30 people gathered in the the Upper East Side home of Amy Goldman Fowler, a major donor to Democratic candidates and committees.
“It looks like he is destined to be the nominee again,” Biden said, describing Trump.
Later, in a ballroom full of lawyers at the Intercontinental Barclay hotel, Biden described Trump during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
“I have a dining room, a private dining room off of the Oval Office. This guy sat there on January 6th watching what happened on television — watching it and doing nothing about it,” Biden said, before describing a 2024 rematch against Trump.
“It’s likely going to be the same fella, and I think I am going to beat him again,” Biden said.
Biden hasn’t had a lot of campaign events yet. Those will come later
Biden may be reserving his harshest anti-Trump lines for private fundraisers because he hasn’t had a lot of other campaign events yet. So far there have been only three public rallies to announce endorsements. Like most presidents seeking reelection, Biden isn’t expected to begin actively campaigning until next year.
In the meantime, he is attending fundraisers to build up a campaign war chest and he’s focusing on doing the job of president.
“I think it’s a smart strategy to continue to have the two somewhat separated,” said Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist who worked on the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton.
Finney said most Americans are not thinking much about the 2024 presidential campaign and would rather hear the president talking about things that affect their daily lives rather than politics.
“What Americans want to see right now, is to see him focused on running the country,” said Finney.
He’s also making a lot of jokes about his age
At fundraisers, Biden is typically less guarded than in settings where cameras are present. His first reaction to the House impeachment inquiry came at a fundraiser last week in Northern Virginia.
He sometimes describes the people standing along his motorcade routes flipping him off or holding pro-Trump flags. And he often jokes about what is widely seen as his greatest weakness with voters: the fact that he is 80 years old.
“You may have noticed, a lot of people seem focused on my age,” Biden said to laughter at the Broadway event this week. “Well, I get it, believe me. I know better than anyone.”
He argued that his experience made him uniquely equipped to handle the COVID crisis and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. And he ended his remarks with his usual line about optimism — with another joke embedded inside.
“I’ve never been more optimistic about our country’s future in the 800 years I’ve served,” Biden joked.
“1,500 donors shelled out $250 to $7,500 to hear him speak alongside Broadway stars like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Josh Groban”
Man of the people who dines with the mega wealthy? This sounds like some neo-con garbage from 2004 where the rich oil execs all sit around in hotel and have steak dinners or some bs like that. This does nothing for the working people
So.
I fucking hate the way money is tied up in our politics. I’d really, really like to see all campaign funding come from the government, in equal amounts, to candidates who meet some requirements. However, we don’t live in that world. We live in the world of citizens united, corporations are people and money is speech. In that world, for Joe Biden to do anything like negotiate the sick days train workers were striking for, or have his labor bureau declare that companies trying to slow down unionizing efforts just have to cope with unions for doing so, he needs to be in office. To be in office, he needs people to vote for him. And for people to vote for him, in this civilization built by the dumbest apes capable of building a civilization, he needs funding. Funding to forward voter registrations, for get out the vote efforts, for advertising. So, yes. This event was not in and of itself productive for the working people. That doesn’t mean that Joe, “If you pay more in taxes, nothing will fundamentally change for you”(to a roomful of those same rich assholes, telling them they can cope with a tax bump) Biden is in fact doing nothing for working people.
Yes, the system sucks. Big agree. To fix it we need a shitload of progressives in power, enough to not just outvote the regressives by a significant margin, but enough to drag the weak ass dems and the corporate dems along for the ride. You can’t change the world until you can see it clearly.
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Honestly, my requirement for Biden was, “Not Trump”. He has, over the course of his administration, performed not being Trump quite well. He has also actually impressed me with how much better he was than my expectation of him. It seems like every time I hear some shit that I get disappointed in him for like the rail thing, or the “nothing will fundamentally change” thing, it’s turned out that he did a solution, maybe not in the way I would have re pushing the strike over, but he then went and got them the sick days they were striking for, without the massive damage to the economy a rail strike would have caused, or he was telling the money people that they could fucking cope with having a slightly smaller giant pile of dollar bills to play in like autumn leaves.
Trump earned my antivote last cycle. Biden earned my vote this cycle.
Have you seen what people pay for Taylor Swift tickets or NFL season passes? Those are not mega wealthy prices.
Yeah and none of those people are poor either, whats the point?