Hours After Entering 2020 Race, Biden to Attend Big-Money Fundraiser Hosted by Comcast, Blue Cross Execs

Hours after officially entering the 2020 Democratic presidential field Thursday morning, former Vice President Joe Biden is expected to head to the Philadelphia home of Comcast executive David Cohen for a big-dollar fundraiser that will reportedly be attended by Democratic lawmakers, the CEO of insurance giant Independence Blue Cross, and other high-powered party players.

Biden launched his presidential bid with a video condemning President Donald Trump’s response to the 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville and calling the 2020 election “a battle for the soul of this nation.”

“The core values of this nation, our standing in the world, our very democracy, everything that has made America America is at stake,” Biden said. “That’s why today I’m announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.”

As Politico reported on the eve of Biden’s 2020 announcement, the former vice president “raised the alarm about fundraising” in a conference call with top donors, expressing the need to have a big first-day haul.

“The money’s important,” Biden reportedly said during the call, according to a anonymous participant who recounted the remarks to Politico. “We’re going to be judged by what we can do in the first 24 hours, the first week.”

While Biden has vowed to join most other 2020 Democratic candidates in rejecting campaign contributions from lobbyists, HuffPost‘s Kevin Robillard pointed out that Biden’s planned fundraiser with corporate executives Thursday evening “shows the limitations of such a pledge.”

Though Cohen is technically not a registered lobbyist, he directs Comcast’s lobbying operations—a distinction that critics said allows him to skirt federal lobbying regulations.

According to the Philadelphia Business Journal, “Cohen sent an email to potential contributors Wednesday soliciting donations of $2,800, the maximum federal primary contribution for the event.”

Politico first published the invitation for the large-dollar fundraiser:

As Sludge‘s Donald Shaw reported, Comcast “has been a leading voice in the telecommunication industry’s efforts to oppose net neutrality rules, spending millions on lobbying against laws at the federal and state levels that would prohibit internet service providers (ISPs) from giving priority treatment to certain types of traffic.”

“In 2006, when he was a senator from Delaware serving on the Judiciary Committee, Biden said that he did not think net neutrality rules were needed,” Shaw noted.