Inside the glitzy fundraiser where Biden lost George Clooney

Hollywood executives, performers and thousands of other Californians filed into a Los Angeles theater last month, expecting a star-studded fundraiser for President Biden, backed by actors George Clooney and Julia Roberts, that would inject millions of dollars into Biden’s static campaign and launch him on a path to beat Donald Trump in November.

Instead, many attendees — led by Clooney — now say they watched a dud and a preview screening of what the nation saw two weeks later in Biden’s prime-time debate against Trump.

“I said to my wife, either he’ll do great at the debate, and we’ll realize he was just tired tonight, or he’ll perform like this and then the whole country will be talking about it,” said Jon Favreau, an Obama White House speechwriter who attended the event.

Reflecting on the June 15 event at L.A.’s Peacock Theater, some donors said this week that they noticed Biden seemed slow. He appeared frail. As he greeted donors lined up for photos, he trailed off or spoke too quietly in small-talk conversation to be heard.

The lingering doubts among Biden’s closest supporters that evening help explain why support for him has collapsed so quickly in the days after the June 27 presidential debate: the debate confirmed many voters’ long-held suspicions that the elderly president was not up to the task of campaigning. The reactions among attendees of the event also raise questions about why Biden’s allies did not speak up sooner about their concerns, allowing his campaign to insist for months that Biden was vigorous and sharp behind-the-scenes, when many now say that was not their own experience.

Measured by dollars, the evening was a success: it brought in more than $30 million for Biden’s campaign, setting a record for a single political fundraiser. The president, who had just flown in from Italy that morning, first met with top donors and allies in a two-hour-plus series of private receptions and photos before taking the stage with former president Barack Obama and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel in the 36-minute main event.

But even with Kimmel posing softball questions, and Obama frequently interjecting to provide support, Biden struggled to explain key parts of his campaign platform, with attendees saying that the president frequently stumbled over his remarks, trailed off or was simply confusing.

Some attendees said it was even at worse at the smaller receptions before Biden took the stage. Greeting hundreds of supporters for grip-and-grin photos, the president stumbled over small talk and seemed frail, according to six attendees. For high-level donors who were meeting the 81-year-old Biden for the first time, several said they found his decline shocking.

“It felt like he was still the smart, witty guy we’ve all followed for many years, but the volume and speed are turned way down — to an alarming level,” said one longtime Democratic supporter who, like several others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss her personal experience meeting the president after she and her husband donated $100,000.

Making small talk with the current and former presidents while preparing for a photo, the donor said that she and Obama shared a brief joke that Biden initially seemed to miss. The current president only attempted a retort “in a barely audible voice” after the photo was over and others had moved on, she said.

Biden campaign staff and allies have characterized the criticism as unfair and retroactive second-guessing, pointing to the president’s travel and his stamina through the roughly three-hour long event. They note, too, that the Kimmel portion of the evening was open to the media.

“Several reporters were present for the President’s interview with Jimmy Kimmel at the L.A. fundraiser,” Lauren Hitt, a campaign spokesperson, said in a statement. “None of them reported out anything like this at the time.”

The donor said she and her husband were asked by friends after the event about Biden’s condition and “struggled to answer them honestly,” fearful of eroding Biden’s support.

“We were worried that if we told the truth — that President Biden was stiff, slow and dare we say it, fragile — that we risked losing their support for the president,” said the donor. “It was painful to be deceptive. Now, we realize we were not alone in withholding what we experienced.”

Another donor said he focused on what he considered the evening’s high points, such as Biden’s rousing slam on the Supreme Court’s recent rulings.

“You want to believe in the possible,” he said.

The fundraiser appears to have been a breaking point for Clooney. In an op-ed in the New York Times on Wednesday, he wrote that he loved and supported Biden — but that he believed Biden should drop out of the race, in part because of what he had observed at the event.

“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020,” Clooney wrote. “He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

A spokesperson for Clooney declined to elaborate on the actor’s interactions with Biden at the fundraiser.

Others who attended said they felt Biden had been engaging and energetic, particularly given the circumstances.

“You’d be tired too after two overseas trips to Europe in a matter of days, plus just getting off an 11-hour flight with a nine-hour time zone change, standing and shaking 200 hands for a couple of hours, and then heading into a giant event to perform,” said Kimberly Marteau Emerson, an attorney who Biden appointed to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council last year. “Given all that, I think he did a fantastic job.”

Hunting Hollywood cash

Air Force One touched down at Los Angeles International Airport around 5 a.m. on June 15, with the president and his team fresh from meetings with world leaders and the Pope in Fasano, Italy, and a brief layover outside of Washington, D.C.

The red-eye flight had required crossing 10 time zones, but the Saturday night fundraiser promised to be lucrative and exciting, representing a glamorous break from Biden’s political battles. VIP donors and political staff could mingle with Clooney — who has helped organize Democratic fundraisers for years, like a $15 million event for Obama at Clooney’s home in 2012 — and other Hollywood stars.

Biden would also share the stage with Kimmel, one of his staunchest — and wittiest — supporters in Hollywood. The TV host is a reliable Democratic donor who has also given to Senate candidates such as Missouri attorney Lucas Kunce and Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego, according to Federal Election Commission data.

While L.A. is a deep-pocketed and reliably liberal enclave — Biden won Los Angeles County by a nearly three-to-one margin over Trump four years ago — the president’s campaign had been late to fully tap Hollywood’s checkbooks given entertainment industry strikes last year.

Now the campaign was working to make up for lost time. The Los Angeles Times reported that access to the most exclusive VIP perks, including the photo line, reception and after-party, cost $500,000. The cheapest tickets to the public portion of the event required a $250 donation to the campaign.

The campaign was also looking for a boost of energy. As Biden arrived in California, polls showed the presidential race closely tied or with Trump holding a slight edge, and that many Americans were deeply dissatisfied with both major candidates.

Giving Biden time to recover from his international travel, the president had no scheduled events until around 5:15 p.m., when his motorcade arrived at the Peacock Theater, driving past a smattering of demonstrators protesting about the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Attendees and campaign staff described several reception areas backstage at the theater, including one area filled with high-profile actors, and another where donors mingled with Democratic elected officials including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Guests were eventually invited to queue up for a photo opportunity with Biden and Obama.

Emerson — whose husband served as ambassador to Germany under Obama — said she had a pleasant experience meeting Biden and Obama in the photo line.

“I mentioned how much we enjoyed hosting Jill at our home a few weeks earlier. He immediately lit up and said, ‘She told me about it!’ and squeezed my hands,” she wrote in a text message.

But other Hollywood donors and attendees said that they were disappointed by their glimpses of Biden, particularly when they compared the president to the younger and more energetic Obama standing next to him.

“He just seemed so worn out,” said one donor who hadn’t seen Biden in person in several years.

Several members of Congress, who interact more often with Biden than the Hollywood crowd, were in attendance and said they found the president’s performance underwhelming, but little different from what they’re accustomed to in Washington.

“I’ve been with him. I know what to expect,” said one lawmaker, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the fundraiser and other private experiences. “It’s hard to think he’s our best chance to beat Trump.”

Meanwhile, onstage, Barbra Streisand, Kathryn Hahn, Jason Bateman and other performers entertained the packed crowd.

“When democracy is at stake, Jack Black answers the call,” the actor said, endorsing Biden in American-flag overalls and a “Dark Brandon” t-shirt.

Around 7:45 p.m., Biden took the stage alongside Obama. The two men bantered with Kimmel about how traffic-congested Los Angeles roads can miraculously open once you’re president.

The conversation then turned more serious, as Kimmel rattled off Biden’s accomplishments as president — such as lowering prescription drug costs for seniors and decriminalizing cannabis — and contrasted him with “Orange Julius Caesar,” one of several mocking references to Trump.

Kimmel also referenced the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and end the constitutional right to abortion. The Biden campaign later released a clip of one exchange, showing Biden forcefully arguing the Supreme Court “has never been as out of kilter as it is today,” citing an opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas that suggested the court should reconsider other decisions that established rights to contraception, as well as same-sex relations and marriage.

“Not on my watch. Not on my watch,” Biden said to applause.

But Biden also stumbled over some questions, even as Kimmel and Obama interjected with quips and support. Asked why some Republicans continue to oppose the Affordable Care Act, the president offered a meandering reply.

“I was able — and I was able to expand it to — and save another 8,000 buck — 800 bucks a year for them,” Biden said, according to an official White House transcript. “But here’s the deal. The fact is that these guys don’t seem to care. They somehow — and, by the way, it’s not — it’s saving the country money. It’s not wasting money. All the cost — it would — if — this — if it — what — what’s — it’s about, I guess, 40 million people would be affected.”

“Millions of people would be affected,” Obama quickly followed up. “And the reason that the Republicans say they’re opposed to it is because we did it.”

Monica Zierhut, a 55-year-old music supervisor who spent $250 on her seat, said she was impressed by Biden, particularly when accounting for his age and travel.

“I felt he was very articulate when he was talking,” Zierhut said. “He wasn’t, you know, a meandering old man.”

But for Favreau, who was sitting close to the stage, the evening was an opportunity lost. Rather than convey a strong and inspiring reelection message, Biden’s performance “was slow, halting, and hard to follow,” Favreau said.

Other attendees said they too left the theater with grave concerns but tried to shove them aside. Bedford McIntosh, a 69-year-old retired education fundraiser who spent $1,000 on seats for himself and his wife, said he left the fundraiser worried about the president’s ability to galvanize voters — particularly given Biden’s contrast with Obama.

“You juxtapose those two, and it’s night and day,” said McIntosh. “I didn’t walk out of there thinking, ‘oh, we got the right guy.’”

The fallout

Twelve days later, Biden’s poor performance in the debate against Trump unlocked frustrations across Hollywood, with some longtime Democratic donors venting that they’d been privately reassured that Biden remained sharp even as millions of television viewers discovered the opposite.

Biden “gave us a bunch of malarkey, and I’m really pissed,” said Ari Emanuel, CEO of entertainment conglomerate WME, speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival the day after the debate. Emanuel — whose brother, Rahm, was picked by Biden to be ambassador to Japan — suggested that donors should stop giving to the president’s campaign. The Biden campaign or White House hasn’t contacted him since his criticism, Emanuel said in an interview Wednesday.

“Let’s go with the bullpen please. Let’s go with relief,” Damon Lindelof, the producer and showrunner behind TV shows “Lost,” “The Leftovers,” and “Watchmen,” wrote in a column for Deadline last week, calling for a “DEMbargo” on donations until Biden drops out.

Clooney’s column in the New York Times this week went further, calling on Democrats in Congress to speak out and help push for a new nominee.

“The dam has broken. We can put our heads in the sand and pray for a miracle in November, or we can speak the truth,” Clooney wrote.

Other Biden supporters at the fundraiser have stayed with the president. Hahn, who performed at the event, joked about calls for Biden to drop out of the race when she guest-hosted Kimmel’s show on Monday.

“Here’s the thing: I would vote for a skeleton over Donald Trump,” she said.

“In fact,” she said, “I may literally be voting for a skeleton.”

Tyler Pager, Aaron Schaffer, Shawn Boburg and Michael Kranish contributed to this report.