President Obama entertained Democratic donors at a private fundraiser in Santa Monica Thursday night at the expense of Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, the butt of his jokes.
Obama reiterated previous talking points that the November election was an important one and that it ought to be an easy decision for voters to make.
Trump and Cruz, he said, were doing voters a favor “laying bare, unvarnished some of the stuff we’ve been dealing with in Congress,” the president told attendees at the home of Alan and Cindy Horn.
The two, portrayed as party outliers, were in fact not any different than the rest of the party, Obama explained.
“It gives you a sense of what’s at stake in this election — what’s at stake is how our democracy functions,” he added. Earlier in his remarks, Obama bashed Senate Republicans for refusing to consider his Supreme Court nominee, an attitude he alleged was held by all members of the party and the presidential candidates.
Obama said it was critical the public elect lawmakers who “don’t consider compromise a dirty word … That they care about what is happening beyond our borders.”
The candelit outdoor dinner cost $34,000 per couple. All proceeds went to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Lujan were in attendance.
The president and his family were scheduled to remain in Los Angeles overnight.
