Jeffrey Katzenberg Tells Joe Biden That Donor Cash Is Drying Up As Concerns About POTUS’ Age Grow

Dominic Patten and Ted Johnson
·3 min read
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President Joe Biden heard some hard words Wednesday from Jeffrey Katzenberg about his reelection chances.

The longtime Democratic donor and fundraiser spoke with Biden today in Las Vegas, Deadline can confirm, before the announcement came down that Biden had Covid again.

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Due to the president’s proximity to Los Angeles, Katzenberg, a campaign co-chair, traveled to Vegas to meet face-to-face with Biden. In a small meeting with a handful of senior advisors, he laid out to the 81-year-old Biden how donors are drying up due to ongoing concerns about the president’s age.

The exec supposedly told Biden that the road ahead to another term could be very difficult, sources tell us.

Katzenberg did not respond to request for comment from Deadline about the meeting. Senior campaign officials tell Deadline that the meeting was “routine” on a number of matters as well as donors, and “nothing out of the ordinary” occurred. Biden and Katzenberg speak regularly, and the president is fully aware of the dissent among some formerly loyal donors, we hear.

No news if Katzenberg has Covid like the president, but the longtime mega-bundler was in close quarters with Biden earlier today.

Already, a number of Hollywood donors and key supporters have called on Biden to withdraw from the campaign, amid concerns that there is no path to victory following the president’s dismal debate performance last month.

Biden’s meeting with Katzenberg and a trio of others comes as Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a strong ally of Nancy Pelosi, said publicly today that he has thinks the president will have a hard time winning in November. “While the choice to withdraw is President Biden’s alone, I believe it is time for him to pass the torch,” said Schiff, widely tipped to win California’s open Senate seat in November. “And in doing so, secure his legacy of leadership by allowing us to defeat Donald Trump in the upcoming election.”

Among the Tinseltown donor class, most prominent was George Clooney who, in a New York Times op-ed last week, called for Biden to drop out of the race. He wrote that “our party leaders need to stop telling us that 51 million people didn’t see what we just saw. We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign.”

The op-end came after Clooney co-hosted a fundraiser in Los Angeles for the Biden campaign on June 15; the event raised more than $30 million, a record. Clooney wrote that “it’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe “big F-ing deal” Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

Damon Lindelof, another prominent Hollywood donor, wrote in a Deadline essay that the entertainment industry should withhold its money from the party until the top of the ticket is changed. Other figures, like Rob Reiner and Stephen King, also have urged Biden to drop out.

Semafor first reported on the Biden and Katzenberg meeting today.

Heading now on Air Force One to isolate in his Delaware home, Biden has another fundraising swing to Southern California planned later this month. That trip includes a reception in Laguna Beach on July 26 with co-hosts Anne Earhart, Janet Keller and Bernie Schneider and James Costos, per an invite.

The next day, Biden is scheduled to headline a campaign fundraiser in Piedmont, CA, with co-hosts Quinn Delaney and Wayne Jordan, and Buffy Wicks and Peter Ambler.

The Biden-Harris campaign has about $250 million cash on hand, we hear.

Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to headline a fundraiser in Provincetown, MA on Saturday.

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