Dreamworks SKG co-founder and Democratic megadonor Jeffrey Katzenberg vowed to deliver “all the resources” that President Joe Biden will need for his 2024 reelection campaign in a “relentlessly upbeat” interview.
Katzenberg, who is serving as Biden’s campaign co-chair, told the Financial Times that high-end donors are on board Biden’s reelection bid, despite a number of polls showing widespread concern about the 80-year-old president’s age and mental sharpness.
He said he is “confident” that the campaign can draw more than the $1 billion of contributions received during the 2020 race.
“For us, this is about a 19-month marathon, it’s not a sprint,” Katzenberg told the FT. “The excitement and enthusiasm level since he’s announced, certainly from the high-end donors I’ve been in touch with, has been very, very high.”
Katzenberg, who pivoted from the failed Quibi streaming service to become a founding partner of the investment firm WndrCo, is a longtime Democratic donor who was one of the first prominent backers of then-Sen. Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential race.
In 2020 and 2022, he spread his wealth wide among the party’s candidate for the Senate and the House of Representatives, donating to dozens of candidates, state parties and political action committees, according to OpenSecrets.org, which compiles campaign finance data.
He donated the maximum $5,600 directly to Biden’s campaign in the 2020 campaign cycle. The “Biden Victory Fund,” a joint fundraising committee authorized by Biden and the Democratic National Committee booked two large donations from Katzenberg in 2020 totaling $727,800.
Katzenberg also dropped $100,000 in 2020 to The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump organization founded by former prominent Republicans, and another $100,000 to the progressive PAC Priorities USA Action.
So far this year, he’s ponied up donations for several tough Senate races, backing Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, John Tester’s reelection bid in Montana and Rep. Adam Schiff’s bid for Sen. Diane Feinstein’s seat.
Various estimates have put Katzenberg’s wealth at $900 million or more, noting that he pocketed $300 million when Comcast bought Dreamworks Animation in 2016.
Katzenberg’s comments were revealed a day after CNN hosted former President Donald Trump in a widely panned town hall event that even the network’s own media reporter called a “spectacle of lies.”
They also followed a poll released by ABC News over the weekend that showed Biden’s approval rating at a career low of 36%, with 68% of respondents saying he is too old for a second term.
Just 32% of respondents said Biden “has the mental sharpness it takes to serve effectively as president.”
Katzenberg eschewed the idea, telling the FT that Biden “‘is fit and engaged and has a high level of energy.”
“The president has shown that he’s 80 years young and brings with him the wisdom and knowledge and experience that he has shown during the past two years,” said Katzenberg, 72. “He is fit and engaged and has a high level of energy.”
Biden took on the age question at a New York City fundraiser Wednesday night, the FT reported, saying it was a “legitimate” issue.
“It wasn’t an automatic decision about running again,” the president said. “Not because I didn’t think there was more to do, but because I thought to myself . . . four more years means six more years. It’s a long time.”
Trump, who is leading the Republican race for the nomination and faced similar questions about his mental acuity while in office, is 76.
Katzenberg said that Biden had the “great advantage” of incumbency in the race, but promised the president will mount a strong campaign.
“Biden has been a ‘boots on the ground, shaking hands, meeting people politician’ for four to five decades — he loves campaigning and loves connecting with people,” Katzenberg said.
“He doesn’t have to run against anybody, he has to run on what he has achieved for the voters, and that is unprecedented,” Katzenberg said, pointing to a list of legislation and strong job creation. “I don’t think people recognise yet what he has been able to do for the country, and that is a messaging opportunity.”