President Joe Biden's campaign committee raised $19.9 million from April to June, which is less than he raised four years ago when he was one of more than a dozen candidates in an open primary, though his political operation claims it raised an additional $52 million for Democratic Party groups.
Biden's campaign released a statement highlighting its recent fundraising successes and criticizing Republican candidates for their "embarrassing lack of enthusiasm" for their campaigns.
Biden's Campaign Fundraising
Biden's campaign statistics include the support of the Democratic National Committee, an advantage neither Republican candidates nor the two long-shot Democratic candidates possess.
Marianne Williamson, a Democratic candidate, raised over $920,000 in the most recent quarter. This past quarter, Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. raised $6,300,000, as per The Hill.
The fundraising report demonstrates that Biden and his team have not yet embarked on the 2024 campaign trail and are relying on the Democratic National Committee as the early staging ground for their efforts next year.
Only four individuals were on the campaign's personnel: campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodriguez, deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks, spokesperson Kevin Munoz, and general counsel Jennifer Maury Riggan.
Biden's campaign, the DNC, and a joint fundraising effort that includes every state Democratic Party organization in the country announced on Friday that they raised $72 million during the second quarter.
Still, the campaign needed to explain how the various organizations distributed the funds. The nearly $20 million contributed directly to the campaign positions Biden slightly ahead of what former President Donald Trump raised into his campaign committee during the same period but behind what Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis raised in less time as a declared candidate.
It is also a few million dollars less than the amount Biden raised in the second quarter of 2019 when he raised $22 million in a congested race for the Democratic presidential nomination. And it's a far cry from the $46 million President Barack Obama's re-election campaign raised in the same quarter twelve years ago, NBC NEws reported.
Since 2019, however, circumstances have changed. Biden, the leader of the Democratic Party, is collaborating closely with the Democratic National Committee to raise funds for his campaign and the party.
And the funds raised by the national party and the 51 state and territorial Democratic Party committees with which he is fundraising will help fund his 2024 efforts across the country and those of other Democrats on the party's ballot.
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Billionaire Linked to Jeffrey Epstein Backs Biden Re-Election Bid
Meanwhile, a joint fundraising committee authorized by the Biden campaign has received a six-figure contribution from a tech magnate who, in 2014, visited a private island of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, contributed $699,600 to the Biden Victory Fund on April 26, according to records from the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
According to Fox News, the donation occurred precisely one week before the Wall Street Journal's report that Hoffman visited Epstein's private Caribbean island, Little St. James, in the US Virgin Islands at least once in 2014.
According to the report, Hoffman and Epstein intended to return to the island in November 2014 before traveling to Boston. It is still being determined what the purpose of these planned travels was.
Hoffman intended to stay at Epstein's luxurious Manhattan townhouse in December 2014 after arriving late in New York City. Biden attended a fundraiser hosted by Hoffman on behalf of the super PAC at the private residence of Shannon Hunt-Scott and Kevin Scott in Los Gatos, California, last month.
According to FEC records, Biden has benefited from Hoffman's extravagant spending on campaign contributions. Hoffman contributed $1.5 million to a super PAC that supported Biden in the 2020 election and the maximum individual contribution permitted to Biden's campaign.
Such expenditures can result in certain advantages, such as access. The White House visitor records indicate that Hoffman visited the White House five times in the past year. One of the visits was for the state banquet with French President Emmanuel Macron.
The other four trips were for meetings with Madeline Strasser, who advised then-White House chief of staff Ron Klain, Kimberly Lang, who was executive assistant to Biden's national security adviser, and Jordan Finkelstein, who was special assistant to Biden and chief of staff to the president's senior adviser.
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