Posted on 03/20/2025 10:58:26 AM PDT by Red Badger
EXCLUSIVE: As Hakeem Jeffries treks to Los Angeles for a big-ticket fundraiser, a number of Hollywood donors are staying on the sidelines out of fatigue, frustration and even fear over the ability of the Democratic party to stand up to Donald Trump.
“I’m not interested, skipping it,” one usually very dependable Dem check-writer said of Jeffries’ event Wednesday hosted by Hope Warschaw.
“The Democrats are all about the midterms, great. But that’s next year, they’re blowing it against Trump now,” the producer added of the party’s leadership and its opposition to the chaos and of Donald Trump’s return to the White House. “A lot of that is on Hakeem, Schumer, Pelosi and the rest of them.”
Out on the West Coast last month to talk with Silicon Valley Democrats, Jeffries’ fundraiser tonight has tickets going from $10,000 a couple to $100,000. With the man who would be speaker accompanied by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Rep. Suzanne DelBene (D-WA), all proceeds raised will go to the Jeffries Victory Fund, which hands out money to the DCCC and others.
A reliable ATM for Democrats, some Hollywood donors are disappointed with where the party has been, or rather not been, over the past two months.
“Why is there no plan, no strategy besides showing up on MSNBC?” another longtime Tinseltown supporter fumed. “Trump said what he was going to do, even if they thought only half of it could happen. They should’ve been prepared, they should [be] protecting people, vets, from Trump and [Elon] Musk.”
In fact, according to a number of sources Deadline has spoken with, not only are the usual suspects not showing up to the New York Democrat’s event with activist Warschaw tonight in Los Angeles, but a number of them also declined invitations to the more exclusive intimate dinner Jeffries had set for this evening.
In addition to feeling that Democrats in Congress lack fight and spine against the hard-right Project 2025 agenda and Musk’s DOGE attack on the federal bureaucracy, several well-heeled donors say they feel “betrayed” by the party’s 2024 campaign.
“They told us [Kamala] Harris was going to win, they told us they had the votes, and then they lost every single swing state,” a top publicist with a number of clients who were active on the Harris/Walz campaign told Deadline. “We were lied too, or misinformed at best, and we got Trump again.”
On the other hand, James Costos, a longtime Democratic fundraiser and activist, said there have been several non-fundraising listening and strategic planning calls with party leaders, including Jeffries and Democratic National Committee chairman Ken Martin. The leaders provided insights into what they were doing behind the scenes and publicly, he said, adding that he was pleased by the “warming the engines” approach.
“The Democrats are finally playing a multidimensional chess game, and everything being played out isn’t on the ‘public’ playing field,” Costos said. “Democrats who are complaining are playing a spectator sport. Complaining to the media isn’t how we win. That’s a losing position.”
In the Senate, the decision last week by Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to vote for the Republicans’ continuing resolution to avert a government shutdown has been met with widespread derision and disbelief — even by Trump himself. In the end, 10 Democrats voted with Republicans for measures that allowed the deep-cutting continuing resolution to move forward.
Amid calls for the likes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to begin a 2028 primary race against the four-term Schumer and more Democrats openly asking the 74-year-old senator to step aside, Jeffries is in an ever more difficult situation — with donors, voters and fellow elected Democrats.
This week, as Schumer undertook a slimmed-down media tour for his latest book, Jeffries confirmed Tuesday that the two New Yorkers spoke over the weekend about their difference of opinion on the GOP CR and going forward. “Sunday we had a good conversation about the path forward, particularly as it relates to making sure we all speak with one voice in the effort to stop these Medicaid cuts from ever being enacted into law,” Jeffries said at a Brooklyn event Tuesday.
“Talk is cheap and easy,” one industry donor responded to Jeffries’ words. “I want to see them take the fight to Trump, not just roll over.” Initiatives like the revamped Democratic Daily Download don’t seem to be making many inroads to voters or donors.
“It’s a joke,” the donor said bluntly. “A bad joke, not funny or effective.”
Fundraising sources say they expected tonight’s Jeffries event to do well, given Warschaw’s longtime activism in the party and that Los Angeles donor circles extend well beyond those in the entertainment industry.
At this point of previous presidential races, there is typically a fair degree of so-called donor fatigue, particularly after a stinging loss. There also is the impact of he devastating January L.A. wildfires, one of the worst disasters to hit the region, as many donors focus on recovery or rebuilding their own homes.
Mathew Littman, a partner at HowLitt who leads a group of creative professionals engaged in Democratic politics called The Working Group, said, “I think people in the entertainment industry are very, very frustrated by what is going on in D.C.”
Littman, who spoke at a Democratic House issues conference in Virginia last week, said that “one thing that Democrats are not doing is messaging 24/7,” noting how much Trump and Musk are on social media and elsewhere commanding attention.
“You are not going to get people enthusiastic unless they see you fighting,” he said.
He credited Jeffries for holding his caucus together for the funding vote and acknowledged Schumer’s concern that a government shutdown would threaten to cut off the budget for the federal judiciary, where Democrats are seeing some success in blocking Trump’s actions. But Littman said Democrats signaled they would wage a fight on the budget and “that did not happen.”
That said, he cautioned that it was important to not get too caught up in the consternation.
“Instead of going after Elon Musk and Trump, who we should be calling out every day, we are going after Democrats,” he said, noting elections in Virginia and New Jersey later this year and the midterms next year, and the prospect that Republicans will be trying to defend their majority with an unpopular president and his chief associate, Musk.
Rufus Gifford, finance chair of the Harris and Biden campaigns who is now a strategist at Elrod Gifford, said donors and activists are not “sitting on their hands.”
“I think they are looking to be inspired by a message and a leader,” he said. Gifford added that “this is not going to be an easy time” for raising money.
“This is absolutely going to be a rebuilding phase, and we are going to have to rebuild trust at every level,” he said. “This is going to require some real convincing of folks that the party is in it for the fight.”
"Get Shorty!"............................
They’re frustrated on the democrat message boards & suffering burnout. Many of them believed Trump would lose in a landslide election on November 5, 2024.
However, Orange Man came out of the political grave & administered an electoral spanking to our democrat ‘buddies.’
Support of criminal activity, inflation, war, poverty, unaffordable housing, vehicles and energy, substandard education, illegal immigration, squandering of tax dollars….,
Hell of a campaign strategy!
Dems: “Do something!! We’ve ramped up lawfare and he’s onto us. We have leftist black robes all over the country trying to stop him, but that isn’t working. We are bombing Tesla dealerships and that doesn’t work either. The people actually LIKE Trump and Musk taking a wrecking ball to the government. Woe is us. Whatever shall we do? Can’t you please open your pocketbooks for us one more time? Your donation of only $1 million will feed lots of Democrat leeches, fraudsters and corruptocrats for a year.”
The current Dem party leadership is profoundly unserious - Davey Hogg, f’Petessake? Clearly deep pocket donors don’t want to depend on contrived outrage and media complaisance in order to get the power they do want - it didn’t work - and ponying up nearly $2 b-b-billion for the last election and finding out it can’t be accounted for only 100 days later is a huge sign of just how unserious the Dem PTB really are.
The Democrats are increasingly out of touch with the common man.
They have no plans other than doubling down on socialism.
Have you heard even ONE democrat outline THEIR PLAN for the next 2-4 years?
No.
Their only ‘plan’, if you can call it that, is “GET TRUMP!”
They care about nothing else.
They say they lost the election because they didn’t communicate their ideas effectively.
I say they lost the election because they did................
I thought the Democrats hated rich people.
Oh wait—they are dirtbag liars.
He’s not Skyhook Hakeem anymore. He’s “FreeThrow” Hakeem.
Democrat donors are tired of the corruption and malfeasance.
They want to see results for all the money they have thrown at the Democrats.
To them it seems like they just threw it out the door into a Black Hole, because it cannot be accounted for.
Every dollar they donate, probably only 50 cents or less gets actually used in campaign functions. The rest gets siphoned off and squirreled away in the Bahamas or Caymans...............
Ya think? Just what I would want. Cough up some serious green and then find ut they gave Oprah Frigging Winfrey a couple million. I’d tell them to eat shit if they came back in the next decade.
When the party blows through $1.5 billion in 90 days with nothing to show for it, I bet he would face a “backlash.”
Listen to Hollywood democrats you’ll be just a broke as they are ,LOL
The forking retarded DemonRATS are making the J6 PROTESTERS look like a bunch of choirboys at a funeral.
Aren’t any of them backing away because the Left has just gone too far? Are none of them thinking trans opera puppet shows in third world countries are just a waste? (or a money laundering scheme?)
Now they'll still get some checks to show on TV news but they'll be able to dribble them all the way back to the banks. 🏀🏀
Ummm, Vets support Trump and Elon...
Any Elmore Leonard reference is welcome by me.
Politics for the Dem Party including all its money laundering and selling favors is similar to the movies.
Chili Palmer:
Rough business, this movie business. I’m gonna have to go back to loan-sharking just to take a rest.
“one thing that Democrats are not doing is messaging 24/7,” ...
to Dems, “messaging” means “lying” ... and there are only a finite number ways to lie about each issue, and the Dems have already used them all up and still no one believes them anymore ... so, what’s a liar who has run out of lies to do? ... THAT’S the REAL quandary the Dems are in ...
Hakeem Jeffries is just a ventriloquist dummy who does what his Democrat party leaders tell him to do.
I hear he’s not a very nice person to be around. Gruff and a NYC attitude towards anyone that’s not a NYer................
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.