Inside Biden’s Irvington fundraiser

After overnighting in New York City, President Biden was today being flown from a Wall Street heliport to John F. Kennedy International Airport where Air Force One was waiting to fly him back to Washington. Earlier he had appeared on the Howard Stern radio show. Biden had been in Irvington last night for a fundraiser at the home of actor Michael Douglas and his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones. His trip to Westchester followed an appearance and speech in Syracuse.

The fundraiser took place under a tent and was attended by about 100 people. It was closed to news coverage except for a small group of reporters and camera people who travel with the president.

Douglas spoke first. He joked that his wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, couldn’t be at the event because she was filming “a new series called Wednesday” with the actress Jen Ortega.

“Right now is the most critical time in our democracy that I can remember in our life time,” Douglas said. He then introduced his son, Dylan Michael Douglas, who happens to be a member of the Irvington Town Council. Douglas’ son said he was disillusioned in 2020.

“Everything I was feeling I put it into my vote,” Dylan Michael Douglas said. “A vote for you Mr. President.” Dylan said he thought that with Biden he was getting a “transitional” leader but instead he got a “transformational” one.

Biden started to speak at about 7:15 p.m. The president joked that he has something in common with Michael Douglas. “We both married way above our stations,” President Biden said.

Biden noted that Michael Douglas had recently portrayed Benjamin Franklin. Biden joked that Benjamin Franklin was only a couple years older than Biden is now.

“Michael was a great American president,” he said. Biden noted that incumbent Congressmen Jamal Bowman and Mondaire Jones were at the event and he thanked them for being there.

Biden said that 1.5 million people have contributed to his campaign, which has raised a quarter of a billion dollars so far.

“It feels good out there,” Biden said.

Biden made reference to the court proceedings involving Donald Trump that have been taking place but said he hasn’t been able to watch because he has been out campaigning. Trump has complained that he has been unable to campaign because he has to be in the Manhattan courtroom where his criminal trial in the Stormy Daniels hush money case is underway.

Biden also touched upon the efforts by Trump and Republican officeholders to ban abortions.

“The voters are going to hold him accountable,” Biden said. “Trump and his MAGA crowd don’t have a clue about the power of women.”

Biden had other criticism of Trump and his time in the White House.

“Chaos is nothing new to Trump,” Biden said. “His presidency was chaos, not a joke. We’ll never forget lying about Covid and telling the American people to inject bleach in their arms. He injected it in his hair,” Biden said. “We’ll never forget his love letters to Kim Jong Un. We’ll never forget him wanting tear gas on peaceful protesters and holding the Bible upside down.”

Biden warned about other possible threats to rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

“When you talk about taking away a woman’s right to choose, we’re well beyond that now,” Biden said. “They want to take away the right for contraception, take away the right to marry, take away a whole range of things that Clarence Thomas talked about no longer being guaranteed in the federal Constitution.”

Biden also reminded the gathering about what happened Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol.

“Trump not only embraces the violence of January 6th, he’s running on it,” Biden said. “I mean, he’s running on it. He calls the insurrectionists who are in prison — he calls them ‘patriots,’ and, if reelected, he says he’s going to pardon them.  He means it.”

Biden recapped what he had said earlier in the day in Syracuse about his administration promoting a return of semiconductor manufacturing to the U.S. and his policies to deal with climate change.

Speaking in Syracuse yesterday afternoon, Biden announced that the federal government will designate Syracuse as one of its new job HUBS, where workforce training programs will help train people for new jobs. These would include tens of thousands of jobs expected to be created in Upstate New York as a result of the $125 billion commitment made by Micron to build semiconductor manufacturing plants in Clay, New York, which is close to Syracuse, as well as in Boise, Idaho. Biden committed to a federal investment of $6.1 billion in the Micron project.

There will be four manufacturing facilities in New York, each having 600,000 square feet of cleanrooms, totaling 2.4 million square feet of cleanroom space. This is the largest amount of cleanroom space ever announced in the U. S. and the size of nearly 40 football fields. A cleanroom is an environment devoid of dust and other contaminants where computer chips can be fabricated.

Biden met with Gov. Kathy Hochul and Sen. Chuck Schumer in Syracuse, and talked with executives from Micron about the project.