Biden fundraiser in Palo Alto.
PALO ALTO » Former Vice President Joe Biden announced to donors at a private fundraiser in Palo Alto on Thursday that he had raised $15 million over the last three months — putting his total below presidential rivals Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg.
“We haven’t raised what a lot of people have — we got started way later than everybody else,” Biden told about 100 donors at Evvia Estiatorio, a white- tablecloth Greek restaurant in downtown Palo Alto. He said his campaign has received “well over half a million contributions.”
Biden has raised a total of $36.7 million since he entered the race in April. But his third quarter total of $15.2 million is less than Sanders’ $25 million and Buttigieg’s $19 million, but more than California Sen. Kamala Harris, who raised just under $12 million.
In a 30-minute speech and in answers to donor questions, Biden didn’t speak specifically about the Ukraine controversy or President Donald Trump’s latest comments Thursday asking China to investigate him. But he sounded upbeat about his chances against Trump.
Speaking in a navy suit and striped shirt with no tie, Biden quoted his dad saying, “Don’t compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.”
“That alternative is looking more and more stark, isn’t it? Holy mackerel!” Biden exclaimed. “I wasn’t sure if, in fact, we were winning,” he said, citing polls from Ohio and Michigan that put him above Trump. “I thought those polls are wrong until Trump decided to go after me — and now I know they’re right now. I’ve got his attention.”
Biden, in a rambling speech that had attendees laughing and applauding at several points, touted his foreign policy experience and reminisced about growing up in Pennsylvania and Delaware, and his long political career.
Biden argued that Trump’s policies had “eviscerated the middle class” — but warned against a “socialist” response to the president.
“You don’t need some radical, radical socialist kind of answer to any of this — you’ve just got to make capitalism work like it’s supposed to work,” Biden said. “We’ve got to save capitalism from this guy.”
Asked about his path to victory in the Electoral College, Biden said he was confident he could win states lost by Hillary Clinton in 2016, citing his strength in Midwestern states. He said states like Georgia, Texas and Arizona would all be “a stretch — I don’t want to jinx myself” but he thinks they’re winnable too.
“All kidding aside, I’ve always been able to do very, very well in ethnic communities,” Biden said. “And I say something outrageous, but it’s true, where I come from, the most loyal constituency I’ve had is the African American community. I still take a look at the numbers, by far and away, that is the base of my support and loyalty and it has stayed.”
Biden said in 2016, Hillary Clinton had “got sucked into the trap of the stuff that Trump was laying — he wants you in a mudfight. … But when you respond to that, it brings you back down into that, and that got us into the whole thing.”
“Everybody knows who Donald Trump is, even those who are for him, they know his character or lack thereof,” Biden said. “We’ve got to let them know who we are: We choose hope over despair and fear. We choose science over fiction. … We choose truth over lies.”
Biden was asked about what he’d look for in a vice president — a question he joked he had a lot of expertise to answer.
“Look, if I could just manufacture someone out of the blue, I would very much think it’s important to have a woman, and even a woman of color, or someone of color as vice president,” Biden said. “But I’ve learned something different. Not different. Something else. The single most important thing you have to have as a president is someone you know is ideologically compatible with you, that you in fact share the same fundamental concerns and values.”
He talked about getting to know Chinese President Xi Jinping and the problems China faces. Using a phrase that he said came from his old Delaware neighborhood, he said, “if we do our jobs … they aren’t a patch on our jeans, man, not even close.”
And he predicted that “We’re going to see the end of NATO as we know it” if Trump is reelected.
Hosts of the event included George Marcus, a Bay Area real estate broker and major Democratic donor; Denise Bauer, a former ambassador to Belgium under President Barack Obama; and Jon Fisher, a tech entrepreneur.
In thanking attendees for writing him a check — and vouching for him with their own reputations — Biden joked that God was testing him.
“That’s the risk — now, if I turn out to be a jerk, which I pray God I will not change overnight,” Biden said to laughs. “Although sometimes he does test my temper. But I’ve been a good boy. I’ve been a really good boy so far.”