Obama Unleashes on Trump Privately as He Raises $24 Million for Biden
At fund-raising events where he has pulled in more than $24 million for Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s campaign in the past two months, former President Barack Obama has privately unleashed on President Trump to party donors, bringing up past accusations of Mr. Trump’s “assaulting women” and warning of his efforts to push “nativist, racist, sexist” fears and resentments.
With less than 100 days until the presidential election, Mr. Obama has laid out the stakes of 2020 in forceful fashion. He has urged support for Mr. Biden, his former vice president, while worrying about the state of American democracy itself, even making an oblique reference to Nazi Germany, according to notes made from recordings of Mr. Obama’s remarks, donors and others who have been on the calls.
Even three years out of office, Mr. Obama remains one of the Democratic Party’s biggest draws for giant contributors and small donors alike. A virtual conversation on Tuesday with the actor George Clooney sold out of tickets that ranged from $250 to as much as $250,000. (The biggest donors got access to a small “virtual clutch” with Mr. Obama.)
Donors who have paid six-figure sums to see Mr. Obama on Zoom — he held two other, more intimate, conversations for donors with Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn and a major Democratic donor, and J.B. Pritzker, the billionaire governor of Illinois — have been privy to wide-ranging Q. and A. sessions about the state of politics and unvarnished analysis from the former president.

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