FUNDRAISERS
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.
The fundraisers in California and an earlier round in Boston are expected to raise at least US$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 US$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 US$8.2 billion in funding for ten new passenger rail projects.
“Trump just talks the talk. We walk the walk,” Biden told a crowd of unionised 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 US$1 trillion infrastructure law, include US$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 US$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 US economy, but recent public opinion polls show the effort has had little success.
