(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden joined former President Barack Obama, Julia Roberts and George Clooney at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles Saturday evening with celebrity surrogates like Barbra Streisand that the campaign said raised a little more than $30 million.
Biden, who flew from his trip to Italy for the G7 summit to attend the glitzy fundraiser, joked that he went through “nine time zones” to be at the West Coast event. Biden left the G7 conference early to attend the fundraiser.
Jimmy Kimmel, who moderated a conversation between Biden and Obama, asked Biden what Americans could do about the Supreme Court stepping into “personal, intimate decision” — a reference to the Supreme Court overruling Roe vs. Wade in June 2022, and the recent ruling that a group of doctors lacked legal standing to challenge the Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of the abortion pill mifepristone.
“Elect me,” Biden replied to Kimmel. “The next president is likely to have two new Supreme Court nominees — two more. [Trump has] already appointed two that have been very negative in terms of the rights of individuals.”
Trump has touted his appointments to the Supreme Court and has taken credit for court’s landmark decision to overrule Roe v. Wade.
“We did that — it was an incredible thing, an incredible achievement. We did that. And now the states have it, and the states are putting out what they want. It’s the will of the people,” Trump said previously of the court’s vote to overrule Roe v. Wade.
Obama stressed to Kimmel that Republicans who may be unwilling to vote for Trump, but can’t imagine voting for Democrats should keep in mind that Biden stands for “core values” that Americans still have in common.
“Part of what has happened over the last several years is we’ve normalized behavior that used to be disqualified,” said Obama.
Twice the former president implored the audience not to boo or hiss at Trump but to go out and vote.
Tickets for the fundraiser ranged anywhere from $250 to $125,000, but grassroots donors could pay as little as $10 to virtually join the event.
Unlike their New York fundraiser in March, which raked in $26 million largely from grassroots donors, the first portion of the program was live-streamed, except for the portions with Roberts and Clooney, for those small-dollar contributors.
The Biden campaign told ABC News that every dollar from Saturday’s fundraising haul will be used to open offices, hire organizers and launch paid media campaigns.
The event comes on the heels of Biden’s G7 trip to Italy where a bilateral security pact was signed on Thursday between the United States and Ukraine. Biden also met with Pope Francis during his time abroad.
Kimmel joked about Biden’s visit with the pope, saying, “You did say that you are fighting to restore the soul of America and lately it seems like we might need an exorcism. Is that why you visited the pope?”
“Yeah,” Biden replied.
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