Biden mocks Trump during California fundraising trip
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[December 09, 2023]
By Jarrett Renshaw and Nandita Bose
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - President Joe Biden kicked off a three-day,
star-studded fundraising trip in California on Friday by mocking
Republican frontrunner Donald Trump for claiming he would be a dictator
just on his first day in office if he became president again.
Trump said on Tuesday that he will not become a dictator if he becomes
U.S. president again, except "on day one."
"Thank God, only one day," Biden quipped at a fundraiser in Los Angeles
at the home of Michael Smith, a celebrity interior designer, and his
partner, James Costos, a former HBO executive who was President Barack
Obama's ambassador to Spain.
Biden called Trump, who lost the 2020 election but sought to overturn
the results, a threat to democracy. Trump was indicted in August for
wide-ranging attempts to overturn the election.
Biden's trip comes a day after the Department of Justice filed new
criminal charges against Biden's son, Hunter, accusing him of failing to
pay $1.4 million in taxes while spending millions of dollars on a lavish
lifestyle. The president did not mention his son during his remarks at
the fundraiser.
California - and the deep-pocketed entertainment industry - has long
served as a major funding source for Democrats, but long strikes by
actors and screenwriters had a chilling effect on fundraising.
The end of the labor unrest has unlocked pent-up dollars, said Jeffrey
Katzenberg, a movie mogul and campaign co-chair who has emerged as an
influential voice in Biden's effort to win re-election in November 2024.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Dec/09/images/ads/current/graue_lda_24ENCLAVE_120423.jpg)
"It will be the most successful day and a half for the campaign to date
and likely one of the most successful day and a halfs prior to a general
election, where things sort of kick into a whole 'nother gear, that
we've ever had out here for any candidate ever," Katzenberg said in an
interview with Reuters.
Biden was scheduled to participate in two Los Angeles fundraisers
expected to include directors Steven Spielberg and Rob Reiner and
musicians Barbra Streisand and Lenny Kravitz. The California swing is
part of a blitz of at least nine fundraisers Biden will hold before the
end of the month.
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![](../images/120923PIX/news_m96.jpg)
U.S. President Joe Biden disembarks from Air Force One at Los
Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, U.S.,
December 8, 2023. REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Dec/09/images/ads/current/werth_lda_HFH_2023.png)
The fundraisers in California and an earlier round in Boston are
expected to raise at least $15 million, according to a source
familiar with the events, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The
total haul in the fourth quarter of 2023 is expected to be close to
$67 million, the source said, adding that the amount will be similar
to that raised by then President Obama during the same period in
2011.
Katzenberg, who is helping to organize one of the fundraisers, said
the final number was still fluid.
"The number is big. I know that," said Katzenberg, who co-founded
DreamWorks Animation.
Biden stopped briefly in Las Vegas on Friday to announce $8.2
billion in funding for 10 new passenger rail projects.
"Trump just talks the talk. We walk the walk," Biden told a crowd of
unionized carpenters there. "He likes to say America is a failing
nation. Frankly, he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. I
see shovels in the ground, cranes in the sky. People hard at work
rebuilding America together."
The projects, funded by the $1 trillion infrastructure law, include
$3 billion for the nation's first high-speed rail line, which will
run through California, according to a senior administration
official.
Biden also announced a $3 billion investment to help create another
high-speed rail corridor between Las Vegas and Southern California,
along with money for projects in North Carolina, Virginia and
Washington.
Biden has spent the last year crisscrossing the country announcing
new funding tethered to his signature pieces of legislation: the
infrastructure law, the Chips and Science Act and the Inflation
Reduction Act.
It is part of a bid to boost his poll ratings and convince voters he
is the right person to lead the U.S. economy, but recent public
opinion polls show the effort has had little success.
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Nandita Bose; Editing by Jamie
Freed, Jonathan Oatis and Edmund Klamann)
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