President Biden raised millions of dollars for his re-election bid in Silicon Valley on Friday while criticizing former President Trump and arguing that his campaign was being underestimated.
“The press doesn't want to write about this, but the momentum is clearly in our favor, with the polls moving toward us and away from Trump,” he said, noting that 1.6 million people have donated to the campaign, almost all of them less than $200 each. He said his campaign has opened 150 offices in battleground states “and Trump hasn't opened any offices. And it is not just because he is being tried.”
California donors fund presidential campaigns on both sides of the aisle, and Biden and Trump have raised more in the state for their re-election bids than anywhere else, according to the Federal Election Commission. The president is expected to return to Southern California for a fundraising event in June.
Biden's trip Friday to California was his first since a February fundraiser at media mogul Haim Saban's estate in Beverly Park. The Israeli-American billionaire drew scrutiny this week over an email he sent to senior Biden advisers criticizing the administration's decision to suspend a weapons shipment to Israel because they could be used in an offensive against a densely populated city in southern Loop.
Biden met with protesters on both sides of the issue in the Bay Area, as well as in Seattle, where he flew after his visit to California. As the president's motorcade headed to a fundraising event hosted by Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo, it encountered people holding Palestinian flags and signs reading “Defund Israel,” as well as another group waving flags. Israelis.
Biden did not address the issue at three fundraisers in California and Washington state on Friday, including the event hosted by Mayer, where tickets cost up to $50,000, according to the news website Puck. A previous fundraiser that Biden led at the Portola Valley home of Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, cost up to $100,000. The two events were expected to raise $4 million.
California's first member, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, attended Mayer's event. Biden called the two women a source of inspiration and highlighted her efforts to create a diverse administration.
“In my opinion, these two ladies here, and I say this sincerely, are emblematic of how America is changing,” the president said. “They are incredibly competent and incredibly capable and they are changing the whole emotion of what constitutes success and what can be done.”
Silicon Valley has become a fundraising giant for political candidates and overwhelmingly favors Democrats.
In the 2024 presidential election, Biden and partner groups supporting his campaign raised $17.1 million from the communications and electronics industry, which includes technology companies, according to an analysis of FEC data released on April 22 by the nonpartisan nonprofit Open Secrets, which tracks election finances. . Trump has raised $1.7 million.
Trump did receive endorsements from some notable tech leaders in his successful 2016 campaign, including billionaire Peter Thiel, the PayPal co-founder who made history that year and who said from the Republican National Convention podium that he is gay before Trump was nominated. as a Republican candidate.
Thiel and some other tech leaders drifted away from Trump after the tumult of his presidency and after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol that attempted to stop the certification of the 2020 election results.
In the 2024 Republican primaries, some endorsed other Republican candidates, but have reportedly returned to the fold since Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee.
“President Trump is building a historic, unified political movement to Make America Great Again, receiving more than 90% approval from Republican voters, winning independents by double digits, and making historic gains among Democratic voters across the country. long-standing,” campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“Anyone who believes in securing the border, rebuilding the economy, restoring American energy dominance, and ending the wars Joe Biden has created around the world is welcome to join President Trump's movement to make America great again.” big,” Leavitt said.
National Republican Party leaders predicted Biden would lose in November disputing his fundraising prowess.
“Everyone is worse off under Joe Biden, but instead of fixing his failed Bidenomics agenda or securing the border, Biden is hobnobbing with donors to save his rocky campaign,” Michael Whatley, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement. “It won't work: Voters know Biden is wrong on some issues and will vote to return President Trump to the White House on November 5.”
First Lady Jill Biden was also in California raising money for her husband's re-election campaign: in Marin County on Thursday and in Beverly Hills on Friday at the home of John Emerson, the US ambassador to Germany during the presidency. of Obama, and Kimberly Marteau Emerson, the spokesperson. for the United States Information Agency during the Clinton presidency.
The event raised more than $450,000, John Emerson told attendees, who included media mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-chairman of Biden's re-election campaign.
After recounting how Biden proposed to her five times, Jill Biden confronted Trump.
“Donald Trump is dangerous to our families and to our country,” he said. “We are the first generation in half a century that gives our daughters a country with fewer rights than us. “We just can’t let him win.”
The president, speaking in Portola Valley, repeated jokes he had previously made about the former president.
“Not everyone is feeling the excitement these days. The other day a guy came up and said I'm in real trouble, I'm short of money and I don't know what to do. I said, 'Donald, I can't help you,'” Biden said.
