Biden Courts Mega-Donors at Luxury Washington Hotel

President Joe Biden has officially launched his 2024 reelection bid by attending a Democratic National Committee (DNC) reception at the luxurious Salamander D.C. Hotel in Washington. The event is part of a multi-day meeting with 150 top Democratic donors, as reported by the Associated Press (AP).

Accompanied by First Lady Jill Biden, the president is taking part in sessions focused on helping Democrats “fund winning campaigns from the top of the ticket on down,” according to his reelection campaign. Dreamworks mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, a Biden campaign co-chair, said, “We’re at the beginning of the beginning. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. And we are in an enviable position in that we’re singularly focused on running and winning in November 2024 and all of our efforts and resources are really focused on that,” as reported by the AP.

Biden’s Heavyweight Donors in 2020

Biden’s 2020 campaign broke fundraising records, amassing over $1 billion, hundreds of millions more than President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign. The Biden 2020 war chest included more than $93 million from Bloomberg LP and more than $63 million from Future Forward USA.

• Facebook billionaire Dustin Moskovitz was a top donor to Future Forward USA.
• Accused FTX fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried donated millions to Future Forward USA through his cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research.
• Priorities USA Action, which gave more than $26 million to help get Biden elected in 2020, received millions that election cycle from various mega-donors, including Michael Bloomberg, Paloma Partners’ Donald Sussman, hedge fund manager James Simons, and Hollywood producer Jeffrey Skoll.

According to OpenSecrets, these donors played a significant role in helping Biden secure the presidency in 2020.

While the donor summit is not a fundraiser, Biden’s involvement in its Friday evening kickoff is a relative rarity in his schedule. Axios reported on April 28 that Biden held “just a dozen public events after 6 p.m.” in 2023.

For more information on the DNC reception and Biden’s reelection campaign, check out the Associated Press article.

For an in-depth look at Jeffrey Katzenberg’s close ties to China, including his work with China’s government on a Shanghai production studio and his formal and informal meetings with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, read the Fox News article.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.