‘Numbers don’t lie’: Biden outpaces Trump in fundraising, enlists big guns for more

Washington: It was a star-studded event featuring three presidents, one hip-hop queen, and a late night talk show host.

And with seven months until the US election, Democrats say it will add a record $US25 million ($38 million) to their coffers to help President Joe Biden win the White House against Donald Trump.

Former US president Barack Obama joins President Joe Biden for the fundraiser on Thursday.Credit: AP

More than 5000 people attended the Radio City Music Hall in New York on Thursday (Friday AEDT) for the record-breaking sold-out fundraiser, where the cheap seats started at $US250 and the most expensive – involving a photo with Biden, Barack Obama, and Bill Clinton by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz – would set you back $US100,000.

Donors wishing to pay $US500,000 also got access to an exclusive reception.

In a rare gathering, all three Democrat presidents appeared on stage for an “armchair conversation” with The Late Show host Stephen Colbert. There were performances by Queen Latifah, Lizzo and Lea Michele, and actress-comedian Mindy Kaling was on MC duties.

Big hopes for big dollars: President Joe Biden and former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton at a fundraising event at Radio City Music Hall in New York on Thursday.Credit: AP

Party strategists hoped that enlisting Obama and Clinton would give Biden a political jolt amid low approval ratings and concerns about his age – something the 81-year-old president has been trying to offset with humour.

“I’ve never been more optimistic about our future, and I know I’m only 40 years old – times two, plus one,” he joked at a campaign event in North Carolina this week.

Donald Trump’s police mugshot released by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.Credit: Reuters

But with an election that is likely to be the most expensive on record, Democrats also want to widen the fundraising gap against Trump, who has amassed his own campaign war chest by selling everything from T-shirts bearing his prison mugshot to dinners at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

This week, the presumptive Republican nominee even began spruiking “God Bless the USA” bibles inspired by the Lee Greenwood song of the same name that is the opening soundtrack to every Trump rally.

“Happy Holy Week! Let’s Make America Pray Again,” Trump wrote as he launched the $US60 bibles in time for Easter.

However, the former president currently trails the incumbent in fundraising this year, with federal filings showing Biden’s re-election campaign had $US71 million on hand at the end of February – more than double the $US33.5 million in Trump’s account.

While Trump has solicited millions of dollars in donations off the back off his legal woes, he is also having to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to fight them.

So far, he’s been fined almost half-a-billion dollars for fraudulently inflating the value of his businesses and $US83 million for sexually assaulting and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.

He is also spending money to delay four criminal trials: one in Washington DC for election subversion; another in Georgia for trying to overturn the results in that state; a trial in Florida over classified documents; and another in New York, starting on April 15, for hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Adult film actress Stormy Daniels.Credit: AP

“Tonight all hell breaks loose!” Trump wrote in a fundraising email seeking donations ahead of Biden’s New York fundraiser.

“In a few short hours, the FIRST EVER Democrat fundraiser with Obama, Bill Clinton and Crooked Joe Biden will begin. Hundreds of deranged Hollywood liberals will be in attendance, and they will open their wallets to fund the DESTRUCTION OF OUR COUNTRY! $25 MILLION WILL BE RAISED TO DEFEAT US!”

Biden, however, has his own political problems. Polls show he is virtually neck-and-neck with Trump, or in some cases, behind him in key battleground states.

His traditional coalition – young people, black voters, Latinos – appears to be fraying.

And most Americans say they have little enthusiasm for a Trump-Biden rematch, which could result in voters not showing up in November, or potentially choosing a third-party candidate such as Robert F Kennedy jnr.

And the war in Gaza is testing his resolve domestically. The fundraiser was punctuated by protests inside the massive auditorium, as attendees rose at several different moments to shout over the discussion, referencing Biden’s backing of Israel in the Hamas war that has killed over 30,000 in Gaza.

“Shame on you, Joe Biden” one yelled, Reuters reported.

Obama said Biden had “moral clarity” on the Israel issue and was willing to listen to all sides in this debate and find common ground. When a protester interrupted Obama, he snapped back: “You can’t just talk and not listen...That’s what the other side does.”

Democrats hope the star-studded event will give the president another chance to gin up enthusiasm and build momentum for the months ahead.

“Unlike our opponent, every dollar we’re raising is going to reach the voters who will decide this election – communicating the President’s historic record, his vision for the future and laying plain the stakes of this election,” said Biden-Harris 2024 campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg.

“The numbers don’t lie.”

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