The donation boom for Kamala Harris continues: Hollywood star Jeff Bridges collected millions of dollars for the Vice President within a few hours. Other Zoom meetings also successfully promoted the presidential candidate.
Jeff Bridges called and Hollywood greats like JJ Abrams, Mark Hamill and Mark Ruffalo came: The Hollywood star collected record donations of 3.7 million dollars for the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris within a few hours. The actor achieved this feat on a Zoom conference that was broadcast live on YouTube and which, according to media reports, was attended by around 180,000 people. It was the most successful fundraising appeal of this kind for Harris on Zoom to date.
“I’m qualified, man. I’m white, I’m a guy, and I’m for Harris,” said Bridges in the style of his most famous film character, the “Dude” from the 1998 film “The Big Lebowski.” Accordingly, the video conference was titled “White Dudes for Harris.” Film director and producer Abrams alone donated $50,000. Democratic Party celebrities such as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz also attended the meeting and promoted Vice President Harris.
Strong words to Donald Trump
The latter prepared the audience for the upcoming election campaign with pithy sentences: “And how often does it happen that this bastard wakes up afterwards and knows that a black woman kicked him in the ass and threw him out, and that he has to deal with that for the rest of his life,” Walz said of former President Donald Trump.
Recently, there have been a number of such conferences on Zoom. “Win with Black Women,” a network of black women, held a conference immediately after US President Joe Biden’s withdrawal and increased the number of participants to 44,000 after it quickly became clear that everything was pointing towards Harris as the likely presidential candidate. The group “Win With Black Men” (53,000 participants) and “White Women for Harris” (164,000 participants) each collected millions in donations. There were also other groups such as the LGBTQ community, Asian Americans and Latin American women who called for donations for Harris.
The strong effect of the Kamala Harris candidacy
They all make it clear how strong the effect of the expected Harris nomination is. A week ago, Biden announced his withdrawal as the Democratic Party’s candidate. The pressure from outside had become too great after his disastrous performance in the TV debate with Donald Trump. Biden’s health problems and advanced age (81) could no longer be ignored.
Kamala Harris’ quick-wittedness could become a problem for Trump
The change of candidate to Harris has triggered a wave of enthusiasm among Democratic supporters in the USA. In polls, Harris is almost on a par with Trump, and numerous celebrities and Hollywood stars are supporting the vice president. Within a week, Harris’ team says it collected $200 million in donations, two-thirds of which came from first-time donors, which is another indicator of the tremendous mobilization effect of her candidacy.
Sources: “Variety”, ABC News, “BBC”
