Entertainment mogul Harvey Weinstein and his fashion designer wife Georgina Chapman will host an intimate fundraising reception Monday night at the producer’s Manhattan abode headlined by President Barack Obama. The New York Post first reported on the fundraiser last month. The president will attend two DNC events during his visit to New York City, according to the White House schedule.
Weinstein was one of Obama’s most prolific fundraisers during the 2012 campaign cycle, bundling more than $500,000 for the president’s reelection effort in addition to more than $80,000 in contributions to Democratic candidates and committess. Last August the president also attended a campaign fundraiser at Weinstein’s Westport, Conn., home that was said to have raised $2.4 million.
Weinstein’s proximity to the Obama administration was emphasized when Obama’s former top strategist Stephanie Cutter was hired by the Weinstein Company to lobby on behalf of the studio’s film Silver Linings Playbook. Cutter frequently tweeted about the film, which was nominated for eight Oscar awards.
According to the fundraiser’s invitation obtained by the Post, couples will pay $32,400 to be wined and dined and have the opportunity to receive a snapshot with the president.
The invitation explains attendees get "a frank and intimate discussion with the president" where they can ask questions, and afterward Obama will "say thank you to each guest and take a photo with them."
The high-profile fundraiser will benefit the Democratic National Committee. The DNC and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have already raised a combined $36.3 million in the first quarter of 2013.
The invite also attempted to revitalize burned-out donors to keep up the fundraising momentum:
Even Republicans concede that part of our victory stemmed from the fact that with no primary opponent . . . our re-elect team used the extra time to build a large campaign operation melding a grass-roots army of 2.2 million volunteers with groundbreaking technology . . . We can’t let them use the next two years to catch up.
The president’s decision to leave Washington while his administration is being rocked by the Benghazi hearings and IRS profiling scandal has raised more than a few eyebrows. Obama gave a press conference Monday morning in which he called the investigation into the aftermath of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi a politically motivated fundraising tactic:
Who executes some sort of cover-up or effort to tamp things down, for three days? So the whole thing defies logic and the fact that this keeps on getting churned out, frankly has a lot to do with political motivations. We've had folks who have challenged Hillary Clinton's integrity. Susan Rice's integrity. Mike Mullen and Tom Pickering's integrity. It's a challenge that mine gets challenged by these same folks. They've used it for fundraising.
The first lady has also benefited from the relationship between her husband and Weinstein. Michelle Obama wore a custom Marchesa creation from Chapman’s label in March 2012 during the White House State Dinner for British Prime Minister David Cameron.