President Joe Biden landed in California Tuesday for a major fundraising push to find out that the hosts of his glittering first event had tested positive for COVID-19.
Haim Saban, an Israeli-American media mogul who introduced the U.S. to the Power Rangers, fell sick earlier in the day and then entertainment executive Casey Wasserman tested positive, according to stand-in host Leslie Gilbert-Lurie.
‘I wish them the quickest recovery,’ said Biden as he took the stage before several hundred supporters, including Jane Fonda.
Details of the positive tests emerged just after Air Force One landed at Los Angeles International Airport.
His motorcade arrived at billionaire Saban’s home in the Santa Monica hills as planned and the event, for which tickets top out at $250,000, was still slated to go ahead.
President Joe Biden will make his second trip of the month to California on Tuesday. The three-day trip includes a string of fundraising events, plus one official speech. Biden is seen here when he traveled to New York for fundraisers earlier this month
President Joe Biden wished Haim Saban (left) and Casey Wasserman a speedy recovery at his fundraising event in Los Angeles after they tested positive for COVID-19
Biden used the occasion to slam former President Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans who line up alongside him for failing.
‘When Navalny died last week and the world holds Putin responsible Trump fails even to condemn it,’ he said of the Russian opposition leader who died in a Russian prison last week. ‘It’s outrageous.
‘Bottom line: Republicans have to decide who do they serve? Donald Trump or the American people?’
It marks his second visit to the state this month to swell campaign coffers already crammed with $130 million – the highest total ever amassed by a Democratic candidate at this stage in the race.
The trip is his third visit to California in a little more than two months for political events.
His first stop is Los Angeles for a fundraising event. There will also be campaign events in San Francisco and Los Altos Hills, with an official policy delivered near Los Angeles on Wednesday.
The first event was at Saban’s home. He is a noted supporter of Israel, raising concerns that it could attract protesters demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
The Los Angeles Times said other hosts also have deep ties to the Jewish community, including Leslie Gilbert-Lurie, author of a book about her life as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, and Nicole Mutchnik, vice chair of the Anti-Defamation League, which campaigns against antisemitism.
It reported that tickets for the event started at $3,300.
In the event, protests did not materialise as wet weather kept people at home.
Instead, the biggest threat was COVID, as both hosts tested positive, news first reported by Deadline.
Anyone coming into contact with the president is still required to undergo testing.
The first stop was at the home of Haim Saban, who is worth an estimated $2.8 billion, according to Forbes. However, we was reportedly unable to attend because of COVID
Saban is famous for buying the rights to the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and introducing them to American television
The repeated swings through California, a state which is not even close to being competitive for Republicans, show how Biden needs to keep raising cash for what will be a tough match-up with Trump, who has mastered the art of tapping millions of small donors.
In its Tuesday announcement the Biden campaign played up the importance of small donations, saying that 97 percent of its three million contributions were foe less than $200 a time.
Senior communications adviser TJ Ducklo said: ‘This haul will go directly to reaching the voters who will decide this election.’
At the start of the month, the president visited the Los Angeles home of Star Wars creator George Lucas, where he tapped rich donors who were in town for the Golden Globes.
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass greet U.S. President Joe Biden upon his arrival in Los Angeles, California on Tuesday afternoon
National polls suggest that Biden trails the likely Republican nominee by about three or four points.
He has gone on the offensive over comments made by Trump that appeared to undermine NATO, the alliance of Western nations that pledge mutual defense.
The campaign rolled out digital ads in the battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin highlight the former president’s threat to NATO nations.
And Biden has also slammed House Republicans for blocking a bill that would have sent $60 billion in support to Ukraine for its defense against Russia.
‘The idea that we’re going to walk away from Ukraine, the idea that we’re going to let NATO begin to split is totally against the interests of the United States of America and it is against our word we’ve given … all the way back to Eisenhower,’ he told reporters Sunday.
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