President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will be flying into LAX for a brief Los Angeles visit on Saturday afternoon, Feb. 3.
During their short trip, the president will be meeting with Black leaders in the entertainment industry to talk about the role they can play in the upcoming election, Deadline reported Friday.
The Bidens will not be staying for the Grammy awards, scheduled Sunday at L.A.’s Crypto.com Arena, but will be departing on Sunday evening for a reelection campaign stop in Las Vegas — an important battleground state in November.
The president doesn’t currently have any major fundraising events on the books, but may meet privately with donors. The wallets and public cachet of Hollywood celebrities and executives have provided important support for Biden’s past campaigns.
In early December, the Bidens went on a three-day fundraising and handshaking blitz across Los Angeles.
During the whirlwind trip they spoke at six private fundraising events, attend the shiva of TV icon Norman Lear and, according to the Hollywood Reporter, raised $15 million for the Biden Victory Fund. A star studded evening event attended by A-listers including director Steven Spielberg, producer Shonda Rhimes, and comedian Rob Reiner, raked in $8 million alone.
Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, visited Manhattan Beach for a campaign fundraiser on Jan. 24 and attended a fundraiser at a private residence in Brentwood on Nov. 20. Earlier this week she stopped in San Jose as part of her nationwide abortion rights tour for the 50th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade ruling, but there is no word yet on whether she will be part of the president’s weekend visit to LA.
The Biden reelection campaign is performing well in the fundraising department, even as the president’s approval rating remains weak. His campaign raised $33 million in the last quarter of 2023, compared to Former President Donald Trump’s $19.1 million haul and Nikki Haley’s $17.3 million.
GOP frontrunner Trump, for his part, has not paid any recent visits to Southern California as part of his campaign to regain the White House. In late September 2023, he attended the California GOP’s convention in Anaheim and also spoke at a ticketed fundraising event in Costa Mesa.
On Friday, the Bidens were scheduled to join grieving families at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to honor the three American service members killed in a drone attack in Jordan. The solemn ritual, called a dignified transfer, has become relatively uncommon in recent years as the U.S. withdrew from conflicts abroad.
The Bidens arrived at the base Friday afternoon to witness the transfer of the remains of the troops killed in Sunday’s assault. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will join the Bidens for the transfer in Dover. They will also meet with the families privately ahead of the dignified transfer.
The service members killed Sunday were all from Georgia — Sgt. William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Sgt. Kennedy Sanders of Waycross and Sgt. Breonna Moffett of Savannah. Sanders and Moffett were posthumously promoted to sergeant rank.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: Orange County Register
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