Say it ain’t Joe.
Over the past three-and-a-half weeks, Hollywood’s political donor class has been calling publicly and privately for President Joe Biden to step down from the top of the 2024 Democratic ticket. With his bombshell decision on Sunday, the town’s most active check-writers have their wish. But the sense of elation quickly gave way to a gnawing feeling that the Biden exit dragged on too long.
“There is relief and gratitude. But neither one of those mitigates the panic that this is all too late to stop an ascendant authoritarian,” says one executive involved in the industry’s efforts to keep a Democrat in the White House.
Some wanted Biden to step aside even before his disastrous debate against Republican nominee Donald Trump on June 27, and they’re blaming Jeffrey Katzenberg for the unprecedented situation the Democrats find themselves in. They insist that the Biden campaign co-chair — who spearheaded a June 15 gala at L.A.’s Peacock Theater with former President Barack Obama, George Clooney and Julia Roberts that raised $30 million — minimized the president’s cognitive deficits while canvassing for money. Even after the debate, which raised serious questions about Biden’s fitness to run, Katzenberg stayed the course. Two major donors say the DreamWorks co-founder appeared unable to grasp the severity of the moment and responded to their concerns via text with emojis, in a move that was seen as tone-deaf. (Katzenberg did not respond to a request for comment.)
With an endorsement from Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris is poised to be the Democratic nominee on the November ballot — a prospect embraced by a large swath of Hollywood donors. The Gotham Group founder and CEO Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, who has served on the national finance committees for Harris, Obama and Hillary Clinton, called Biden’s announcement “a big, giant exhale” that rippled through the industry.
“Everyone is grateful for his service and the tremendous accomplishments of his administration, but the division between supporters and donors about whether he should stay or go is now gone,” she adds. “There’s a tremendous enthusiasm to unite around Vice President Harris and whoever her running mate is, and I will be right there to support her in any way that I can. This is an opportunity for us to take control of the election and effectively silence the Trump campaign’s endless hyperbolic rhetoric about President Biden.”
Harris has a core group of Hollywood supporters, including Goldsmith-Vein, who were meeting Monday to discuss next steps. Meanwhile, billionaire media mogul Haim Saban, who was the single largest donor to Clinton’s bid for the White House in 2016, has yet to weigh in on the stunning turn of events over the weekend that resembled a plotline from “House of Cards.” When reached at the Andrea Bocelli Foundation gala in Florence, Italy, on Sunday, Saban told Variety that he is still “digesting it all before I break my silence.”
Of course, the next big question on the minds of Hollywood Democrats is, who will Harris choose for vice president? One industry player enmeshed in the financial community says: “I don’t care who. It just needs to be the whitest man possible.” A fundraiser who is plugged in with Washington power brokers believes it will be Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly. Others on the short list are Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who enjoys widespread support in Hollywood, is not considered a viable pick given his geographic overlap with Harris, a former senator from the Golden State.
Outwardly, a united Harris front is quickly coalescing, but not everyone in Hollywood had been pulling for the vice president to be the heir apparent. “There are people who wish [Biden] hadn’t endorsed her. But that really would have been a shitshow,” the executive adds. Another executive who has been a major contributor to Biden’s coffers was trying to read the tea leaves of Obama’s statement after Biden stepped down, in which he noticeably did not endorse Harris; the exec called the former president’s word choice “very interesting.” (In his statement, Obama offered vaguely: “I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.”)
Some are bitter that Biden was subjected to a humiliating process. “The View” co-host Ana Navarro blasted Clooney, the most significant Hollywood voice leading the must-go charge, for “relentlessly” dragging Biden. Clooney has been conspicuously quiet since Biden’s announcement. Despite a chaotic run-up to next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Harris is signaling that she wasn’t necessarily the unanimous choice: “My intention is to earn and win this nomination.”
Several Silicon Valley titans, like David Sacks and Marc Andreessen, have made the surprise migration to Trump’s corner — and Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has pledged $45 million a month to the former president. (The Trump campaign is also courting major players in cryptocurrency, a sector that has faced big battles with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other regulators under the Biden administration.) Given that, Hollywood will play a more critical fundraising role than it did in 2020, when the tech industry offered near blanket support to Biden. Still, outliers remain in the entertainment industry, such as “House of Cards” executive producer Dana Brunetti.
“The current Democratic party is in chaos. They can’t run the party, much less the country. They have no one but themselves to blame for Trump’s win in November,” says the Oscar-nominated producer of “The Social Network.” “Hollywood has always pandered to fear, especially with politics. Many do not want Kamala Harris as the nominee. However, they’re petrified of the ramifications of voicing their opinion, especially against a minority female. The fear of being ostracized for speaking one’s opinion — while at the same time having the audacity to call Republicans cult members because it is acceptable — is hilarious to me.”
