US President Joe Biden’s presidential election campaign is set to raise $25m (£19.7m) due to a star-studded event that will be attended by more than three decades of Democratic leadership.
Mr Biden’s campaign team claim the figure is a record.
Former Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton will be standing alongside Mr Biden at the Radio City Music Hall in New York in a rare joint appearance aimed at securing the 81-year-old president a second term in the White House.
Biden and his Vice-President Kamila Harris have already fundraised more than his Republican opponent in November’s election, former president Donald Trump, 77
The hours-long event is expected to attract thousands of people and has different tiers of access depending on how much is donated. The cheapest ticket costs $225 (£178).
The main event will be an onstage conversation with the three presidents, moderated by late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert.
There is also a line-up of musical performers – Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Ben Platt, Cynthia Erivo and Lea Michele – that will be hosted by actress Mindy Kaling.
More money will allow donors to have more intimate time with the presidents. A photograph with all three is $100,000 (£79,159).
A donation of $250,000 (£197,895) earns donors access to one reception, and $500,000 (£395,860) gets them into an even more exclusive gathering.
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“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 campaign co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg.
But “the party doesn’t stop there,” according to the campaign, as First Lady Jill Biden and DJ D-Nice will be hosting an after-party with 500 guests.
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“This is going to be the biggest fundraising event that Joe Biden has done in his political career,” Chris Korge, a veteran Democratic fundraiser who was the national finance chair for Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016, said.
“I believe it’s the largest fundraising event in Democratic Party history. It’s also the only time that three [Democratic] presidents have done a [campaign] fundraiser together,” he added in an interview with NBC.
However, Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesperson, dismissed the significance of the fundraiser and said: “Crooked Joe is so mentally deficient that he needs to trot out some retreads like Clinton and Obama.”
