What Joe Biden Needs To Do To Win Back Hollywood Donors & “Show People He’s Up To The Job”
01.07.2024 - 05:15
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: “Why isn’t Joe Biden on 60 Minutes tonight? Why wasn’t he on Meet the Press this morning?”
Those are the questions an exasperated top Hollywood donor had Sunday as the blast radius from the president’s disastrous June 27 debate performance continued to expand despite the White House and the campaign’s efforts to act like it was just a bump in the road to reelection.
“They need to stop blaming other people, the president needs to show people he’s up to the job,” the donor, who attended the fundraiser with Vice President Kamala Harris at Rob and Michele Reiner’s on Saturday night, added. “They need to get him on TV, now!”
Expressing impatience at best and anger at worst with the campaign and the 81-year-old Biden’s weak voiced and meandering face-off with a surprisingly focused and unsurprisingly falsehood spreading Donald Trump on CNN on Thursday, a number of deep pocketed Tinseltown contributors on both coasts tell Deadline that face time with the Veep and Biden himself over the weekend has offered minimal reassurance, to put it kindly.
“It’s all off the teleprompter, it’s all don’t worry,” a NYC donor said Sunday. “I’m f*cking worried!” A number of donors in both the Big Apple and the City of Angels said they are taking a “wait and see” approach, as Deadline reported on June 28.
Some donors are being more circumspect, speaking to the campaign privately. Others, not so much. “Let’s see what the plan is this week, let’s see how he turns this around,” a prominent small screen showrunner and usually dependable Democratic donor said. “I want to see them flood the zone.”
Amid calls from the New York Times Editorial Board and columnists, New Yorker editor David Remnick, and others for the struggling Biden to bow