Barack Obama is on the guest list for an upcoming Biden 2024 fundraiser in Los Angeles. The fundraiser, which is planned for mid-June and also features Hollywood celebrities like George Clooney and Julia Roberts, was reported by NBC.
The news is the latest sign that Biden's campaign is leaning on Obama and the Democratic party's wealthy power base to push Biden over the finish line, as he struggles to draw enthusiasm for his re-election bid.
Clooney and Roberts will use a "contest" gimmick on social media to generate buzz among small-dollar donors as well as famous surrogates, NBC said.
The actors' names will also feature in campaign emails and texts.
Biden also has a fundraiser planned with Bill and Hillary Clinton on the East Coast in the summer.
Biden held a fundraiser in New York City in March featuring Obama and Bill Clinton that raised $26 million, a record for Democrats.
The event was panned by critics as elitist and tone-deaf, as President Trump traveled to neighboring Long Island for the funeral of a city cop shot dead in the line of duty.
Biden's reliance on glitzy fundraisers in New York and Los Angeles is at odds with his campaign rhetoric, which casts Biden as a rustic figure with deep roots in his birthplace of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Recent polls show Trump with the lead in critical swing states, including Pennsylvania, as Democratic prosecutors pursue an increasingly futile effort to turn the election in Biden's favor with criminal charges against his rival.
Despite Trump's upward momentum, Biden has a significant fundraising advantage, thanks in no small part to Trump's legal burdens. The Biden campaign ended March with nearly twice as much cash on hand as Trump, but Trump is starting to close the gap.
“We’re not under any illusion that he’s not going to narrow the gap,” a Biden campaign adviser told NBC. “But what he can’t get back is the time we’ve had with all this money to do what we’ve done.”
Trump is expected to have an easier time raising money now that he has his party's presidential nomination locked up.
Trump reportedly raised $76 million last month, despite being taken away from the campaign trail for much of April by his ongoing "hush money" trial in New York.
That's an increase from $65 million in March.
