On Saturday night in the Hamptons, the buzz at dinner parties and restaurants was about President Biden’s performance at a local, upscale fundraiser, and traffic nightmares his presence caused.
While the president got largely good reviews — words like “strong” and “energetic” were used to describe his appearance at the private event after his Thursday night debate debacle — others weren’t so sure.
One political veteran told Page Six, “Most people said they felt better,” after seeing Biden, “but some felt worse.”
The unconvinced Democrat insider said that while some at the daytime event were reassured that Biden addressed his “bad” debate in his brief speech, “it was like he was putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound… He did not have a ‘bad’ debate, he was visibly unwell.”
Biden, 81, landed on Saturday in Westhampton Beach and headed to speak at the home of billionaire Barry Rosenstein. It was the first of two big Saturday events for Biden — despite some prominent national calls for him to step down after his alarming debate showing.
Many in the liberal Hamptons donor class said they were back on board with Biden, we hear.
“Biden looked and sounded good,” an attendee at the Hamptons event told Page Six, who added that the president gave a “short speech… but strong.”
The Hamptons fixture told us: “The mood was good. People are concerned, but no one is backing down. People are still very committed. They all feel that they must defeat Trump. It will be incumbent on [Biden] and [his] campaign to continue to perform, and show that the debate was a fluke. That’s what people want to see. Step one was today, and he did a good job.”
Attendees at the fundraiser included Howard and Beth Stern, Loews Hotels CEO Jonathan Tisch and his socialite wife Lizzie, and Donald Trump’s former White House Director of Communications Anthony Scaramucci.
A source at the afternoon event said there were about 200 to 250 attendees at the fundraiser, and that it was “sold out, they had to turn people away.”
The same source said Biden’s address was, “basically the same speech” he gave on Friday, the day after the debate, when he was back on the campaign trail in Raleigh, N.C.
A different source told us that in the Hamptons: “The debate is all anyone was talking about. The donor crowd and people in general [were] just concerned after Thursday night. They didn’t know what to expect, and Biden came out looking tan and nothing like the man we saw Thursday.”
The source added of the octogenarian pol, “His mouth wasn’t gaping, he was energetic and gave a great speech. I felt much better after watching it.”
We heard that Biden spoke for 10 to 15 minutes and did not mingle after. He did, however, pose for photos earlier at the event with VIPs. No questions were taken.
“The postmortem from [the debate] is a lot to deal with,” said the same attendee. “His performance was dismal. He mentioned the elephant in the room. He said, ‘I had a bad night, it wasn’t a great performance, we could linger and talk about a bad performance or we could talk about the leadership of the last four years or the end of democracy with Donald Trump.’ He acknowledged it.”
Sources said that Biden doesn’t seem like he’ll resign. But rather, “He’s digging in.”
That sentiment was echoed when he later appeared at a New Jersey fundraiser,
Also at the event where couples shelled out as much as $250,000 were Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan, philanthropists Michael Sonnenfeldt and Katja Goldman, former Andrew Cuomo finance director Jennifer Bayer Michaels, PR whiz Michael Kempner and filmmaker Margaret Munzer Loeb, the wife of hedge funder Daniel Loeb.
Now that Biden is gone, at least Hamptons weekenders can enjoy their Sundays, they said.
Related a local: “Everyone was complaining he added 45 minutes to over an hour in traffic to get from Southampton to East Hampton. Cops were stopping traffic, and even the back roads were a mess. Everyone’s blaming Biden’s motorcade. People in the Hamptons are happy he’s gone as traffic all afternoon was a nightmare.”
The source added of the vibe: “Oy! The rich and famous have their noses all out of joint!”
https://pagesix.com/2024/06/30/gossip/most-hamptons-donors-stand-by-joe-biden-after-fundraiser/
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