President Joe Biden and company made a sharp rebuke of Donald Trump during a star-studded fundraiser in Los Angeles.
On Saturday, the commander in chief was joined by former President Barack Obama and comedian-slash-Trump critic Jimmy Kimmel onstage at downtown LA’s Peacock Theater, where they made a strong case for a second Biden term in office.
“I could have done nothing and done better than him,” Biden said at the start of the event, per The Hollywood Reporter. “We’re trying to give ordinary people a chance, just a chance.”
Biden continued to remind the audience of Trump’s failures, later adding, “Look, he’s the only president other than Herbert Hoover who lost more jobs than he started off with. He has increased the national debt by a trillion dollars.”
“He provided a $2 trillion tax cut for [the super wealthy], which did nothing but increase the debt and impact ordinary people, their ability to function and grow. I don’t see anything he’s done that hasn’t been centered on what is good from his perspective for him.”
MANDEL NGAN via Getty Images
Elsewhere in the conversation, Obama called out the tumult Trump has caused with his litany of legal problems, his refusal to accept the rule of law and general lack of decorum.
“Look, part of what has happened in the last several years is we’ve normalized behavior that used to be disqualified,” he said.
“There was a time when we had certain core values that we agreed with. We believed in basic honesty,” Obama went on. “We believed in paying your taxes. We believed in making sure that we didn’t make fun of [prisoners of war], that we did not try to politicize our military, that we respected the ballot.”
The event, attended by George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Barbra Streisand and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.), was able to raise a record-breaking $30 million in campaign contributions in just one night.
Visit The Hollywood Reporter for a complete rundown of the event.
