Star-studded Biden-Obama-Clinton fundraiser pulls ‘historic’ $25m haul in New York

When it comes to hauling in cash for President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign, it’s now obvious that three presidential heads are always better than one.

That’s the lesson Biden-Harris campaign officials are taking away from a star-studded fundraiser to be held on Thursday evening at New York’s Radio City Music Hall, which is set to raise more than $25m for the president’s campaign coffers.

In a statement announcing what they described as the “historic” result, the campaign said the fundraiser, billed as “An Evening with President Biden and Presidents Obama and Clinton,” represents the “most successful political fundraiser in American history” with a 5,000-strong sellout crowd at the historic Manhattan venue and “thousands more” taking in the spectacle online.

In addition to Mr Biden’s two Democratic predecessors, the programme will also include musical performances from Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michelle, plus Late Night host Stephen Colbert, who will moderate an “armchair conversation” with the trio of chief executives.

“This historic raise is a show of strong enthusiasm for President Biden and Vice President Harris and a testament to the unprecedented fundraising machine we’ve built,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood mogul who serves as a co-chair of Mr Biden’s 2024 effort.

The DreamWorks SKG founder, a longtime supporter of Democratic politics, contrasted Mr Biden’s fundraising efforts with those of his likely opponent, presumptive GOP nominee and former president Donald Trump, who is diverting significant amounts of campaign cash to his various legal defence efforts as he fights four sets of criminal charges in four different state and jurisdictions.

Future president Joe