Biden is wrapping a marketing campaign fundraising blitz aimed toward making a daring early assertion

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has in recent weeks teamed up with wealthy donors in posh Upper East Side penthouses and West Coast decks adorned with flower arrangements and flags. He’s hosting two more fundraisers in New York on Thursday, capping a quarter-end lightning campaign that his team believes will give him a solid financial footing for a competition they expect to set new spending records.

Friday’s events are Biden’s 9th and 10th fundraising receptions of the past two weeks, numbers achieved by Vice President Kamala Harris, First Lady Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. Biden’s campaign team hasn’t commented on how much it raised at the often impromptu events, but it does exude confidence about the size of the donation before announcing the July 15 deadline.

The president is also calling on the entire Democratic Party to scramble for dollars, and is asking for help from aspiring politicians and governors in the process. Gavin Newsom of California and JB Pritzker of Illinois, as well as more established figures like former President Barack Obama. Obama will be featured in a new Biden campaign video Thursday, designed to encourage small-dollar donations online ahead of Friday’s donation deadline. Allies insist the party stands firmly behind him despite polls showing the Democratic base’s enthusiasm for the 80-year-old president is lagging behind.

“I’ve been doing this for a number of presidents and presidential candidates for a very long time,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Hollywood mogul, Democratic mega-donor and co-chair of Biden’s campaign. “I’ve never seen the Democrat enterprise get off the ground like this from top to bottom, from President Obama, governors, senators, congressmen, just down the line — he’s had excellent support.”

Aiders say they try to encourage donors — particularly small donors — to dig deeper early.

The latest attack is also a consequence of Biden’s day job, Katzenberg said, adding that “his first, second and third job is to rule the country.” Biden’s trips abroad in April and May and the week-long showdown over raising the country’s debt ceiling kept him in Washington. And Biden will travel to Europe next month, giving the campaign a tight window to adjust to donor events ahead of the historically slow summer season.

While the first quarter is widely viewed as a gauge of campaign strength, Katzenberg said there is “no urgency right now” for Biden to raise or spend large sums because he lacks a credible primary threat and the election is 16 months away. Nevertheless, Biden wants to make a mark with the first totals.

Katzenberg said there are “very optimistic signals” that the Biden campaign could significantly exceed its fundraising in 2020, including a high number of first-time Biden donors. Other campaign workers and allies have grown more optimistic about the forthcoming haul.

A far less reticent Biden is seen at the presidential fundraisers, which the press has limited access to and cameras don’t show, than the public often sees. The President sometimes uses them to test a new campaign line or to make more candid remarks than at formal events.

He usually starts at a lectern, but often uses his favorite handheld microphone, which allows him to move around the room and speak more directly to guests.

Biden often nods personally to hosts — at a fundraiser at the New York home of Greek shipping magnate George Logothetis in May, Biden noted that the lessons he learned from his family as a child were no different than “if my mother was ‘Bidenopoulos ‘ instead of ‘Finnegan’.”

Though his advisors make a point of not dwelling on potential 2024 adversaries, Biden often doesn’t shy away from criticizing those aspiring to the Republican presidential nominee at these events.

“I was stunned by the damage the last government has done to us on an international and global scale. “I mean, I was amazed at how deep it goes,” Biden said during a fundraiser in Chevy Chase, Maryland Tuesday night.

His criticism does not only apply to his predecessor.

“Did you ever think you’d ever go through a period where another team’s second-biggest contender bans books?” Biden said in a veiled reference to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during a fundraiser earlier this month in Greenwich, Connecticut.

When a baby squeaked while Biden spoke to donors about the Republicans in Chicago on Wednesday, the president spontaneously said, “I don’t blame you, kid.”

His sometimes rambling remarks are full of anecdotes about his long tenure in public office, peppered with references to issues of concern to Democrats, such as stricter gun controls and abortion rights. But on a smaller scale, where cameras are banned, the president can speak out, such as making a rare reference to his personal views on abortion when speaking on the issue at a separate Chevy Chase fundraiser Tuesday.

“I’m a practicing Catholic,” Biden said. “I’m not a big fan of abortion, but guess what? Roe vs. Wade got it right.” At the same event, he misinterpreted the war in Ukraine and instead referred to Iraq.

Last week, Biden sparked a round of diplomatic storm and stress from Beijing after calling Chinese President Xi Jinping a “dictator” at a fundraiser – just hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Xi to defuse tensions. Biden insisted the epithet would not affect the relationship – although others in his administration specifically refused to repeat it.

“He wants to shake hands with everyone and chat with everyone,” Katzenberg said. “If something is on his mind, he says it – and that makes him authentic.”

Last week in the San Francisco area, his fundraisers seemed to prove his point that the US economy favors the rich. He attended events near homes whose Zillow price lists were about four times the lifetime earnings of the average US worker.

“Mr. President, believe me, this is a fancy crowd,” Newsom said at an event amid polite laughter. “I know these people.”

The president still tries to make connections to a working-class past even as he outlines big issues like climate change, relations with China and the fate of democracy.

“How many of you are from smaller towns in the Midwest?” he asked. “You know what happened when the factory closed. The soul of the community is lost. No joke.”

Biden’s campaign team breaks with the level of transparency the Obama campaign sought during his tenure as vice president and does not share the total amount raised at a single event.

“The campaign will share its fundraising numbers when we submit our FEC application next month,” Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement, referring to the Federal Elections Commission. “We are heartened by the strong response we are seeing from donors and our grassroots supporters, including a significant number of new donors since 2020, who support the President’s agenda of restoring democracy, freedom and growing the economy through the growth of the support the middle class.”

He added, “While MAGA Republicans debate extreme, divisive and unpopular policies in their primary, we make sure we have the resources to conduct an aggressive, victorious campaign.”

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Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim and Josh Boak contributed to this report.