AP Photo/Alex Brandon
President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama tore into former President Donald Trump during a very successful fundraiser that raised over $26 million, while moderator Stephen Colbert joked about Trump's criminal trials.
The Biden campaign held a record-breaking mega-reception at Radio City Music Hall Thursday night headlined by Biden, former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and a host of other celebrities.
According to a transcript of the event, Colbert joked, “Three presidents have all come to New York, and not one of them is here to appear in court.”
He then asked President Biden to lay out the stakes of the election, and both Biden and Obama took aim at Trump and the Republicans, while Clinton focused more on Obama and Biden:
SC: “Mr. Presidents thank you so much for joining me this evening. This is an especially exciting and rare occasion. Three presidents have all come to New York, and not one of them is here to appear in court.”
“We have limited time together here, so I’m going to hold you two gentlemen President Obama, President Clinton. I’m gonna hold you to five
minute answers… President Biden because you are the sitting president, and you get seven minutes, because as the sitting president, you can order SEAL Team 6to take me out, which according to Donald Trump’s lawyers is perfectly ok.”“This election really feels like the most important election of our lives. First question for you, President Biden. How would you describe what’s at stake in this election?”
JB: “I think our democracy is at stake, not a joke. I think democracy is a literally at stake. I wasn’t gonna run in 2020 because I just lost my son Beau a little earlier, and so I watched what happened down in Virginia, where those folks came out of the fields carrying torches and Nazi flags and accompanied by white supremacist, and a woman was killed, a bystander. Now the president was asked, the former president was asked what he thought. He said they’re very fine people on both sides,.. Think about the things [Trump] has said, think about the things he wants to do. He’s indicated that he really wants to have the first day of his new term quote unquote, will be one where he engages in absolute autonomy, and he can do whatever he wants to do….”
“I think a lot’s at stake, but I’m really hopeful because I think we get by this election, not because of me, we get by this election, and we’re in a position where we can set the course for the next four or five, six decades in a way that can make us much much better.”
“We’re at an inflection point in history. This guy denies there is a global warming. This guy wants to get rid of not only Roe v. Wade, by the way which he brags about having not he wants to get rid of the ability of anyone anywhere in America has ever to choose — All the things he’s doing are so old. A little old and out of shape, but anyway.”
SB to Obama and Clinton: Is there anything you’d like the add to that state of urgency.
BO: “Well, I think it’s worth adding, it’s not just the negative case against the presumptive nominee on the other side. It’s the positive case for somebody who’s done an outstanding job. Sometimes we forget where we started, and where we are now. You got a record breaking job market. You’ve got an employment rate that is low as it has been for African Americans, by the way the lowest on record. ever. You’ve extraordinary progress building off the work we did, first by Bill Clinton passing the Children’s Health Insurance Act, we passed the Affordable Care Act. Joe Biden takes the baton ,and he’s now expanded coverage, he’s made sure that seniors are seeing big discounts in their prescription drugs, capping insulin drug prices, capping the price of insulin at 35 bucks were it used to cost up to 400… we could obviously go on. Are my five minutes up yet? … ”
“The point is that — look passions get stirred by what we’re against and Joe is absolutely right t hat we’ve got not just a nominee, but frankly a party and an entire infrastructure that increasingly seems unconcerned with the essence of America. The idea of self governance and the possibilities of us all full operating and bridging are differences and moving forward. But we also have a positive story to tell about the future. And that is something that Joe Biden has worked on, diligently each and every day on behalf of working Americans and I expect him to continue to do that for the next four years and eight months.”
BC: “he’s really done a good job. The way you opened this, talking about the defense of democracy not only begs support for President Biden but also begs the question of why are we even arguing about some of the stuff? I’ll tell you what’s old. What’s old is the United States of America. We are the longest lasting free democracy in the history of the world. One of our Republican predecessors, Dwight Eisenhower said he worried when times got tough and arguments got hot, Americans would be strong enough to preserve their democracy. And we have to realize that in order to do that, no one is going to be right all the time. Broken clock is right twice a day. And the rest of us are compelled to spend our freakin lives going back and forth between trying to be right all the time, and at least trying to be better than being right twice a day. Into that mess that President Biden inherited was a very vibrant, diverse society and economy. And you know, President Trump, let’s be honest, had a pretty good couple of years, because he stole from Barack Obama…”
“I listened to him tell us how terrible the American economy was all during 2016. And then, by January 2017, after the inauguration, it had become wonderful, miraculously, overnight. Well, what happened was actually job growth under President Trump was slower than it was under President Obama. But people didn’t feel it. It takes a while to feel it. So then he came and claimed it for everything. Then all of a sudden, Joe Biden comes along and creates roughly twice as many jobs. So I believe in keeping score. Not in a vindictive way but in a positive way. He’s been good for America and he deserves another term.
Biden also played along when Colbert mocked Trump’s golden sneaker/Bible empire.
SC: I want to point out that we are 10 minutes in, and I have asked one question. I want to do a quick lightning round here. Do any of you have plans to sell golden sneakers or $60 bibles? Show of hands?
JB: “No golden sneakers.”
The Biden campaign said in a statement, “Tonight, President Biden joined Presidents Clinton and Obama at Radio City Music Hall in New York City for the most successful political fundraising event in the history of American politics. ‘An Evening with President Biden and Presidents Obama and Clinton pulled in a historic $26+ million.”
