Joe Biden in Southern California to raise money for presidential run

Josh Haskell Image
Thursday, May 9, 2019
Joe Biden in SoCal to raise money for presidential run
Former Vice President Joe Biden is in the Southland raising money for his run for the White House.

BRENTWOOD, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Former Vice President Joe Biden is in the Southland raising money for his run for the White House.

Biden spent Wednesday night at a Brentwood home raising thousands of dollars for his 2020 campaign. Earlier, he attended a fundraiser in Hancock Park. He has another finance event Thursday. In between it all, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti took Biden out for tacos.

King Taco #10 in Pico Union was the restaurant of choice and over tacos al pastor, the current frontrunner to face President Donald Trump in the general election weighed in on the chaos in Washington.

Earlier in the day, the House Judiciary Committee voted to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt, and the president used executive privilege to keep redacted portions of the Mueller report from being released.

"We have three branches of government, one is the Congress. They're entitled to be able to get access. I'm sure it's going to end up in the courts, but I think they did the right thing. We're getting close," Biden said.

Biden added that Trump is fundamentally changing the country.

"It really is about restoring some dignity to the office, about picking truth over lies, unity over division. It's about who we are, and everything's changing right now," he said.

There are over 20 Democrats running for president, including California Sen. Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, and the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg.

"The last thing the Democratic Party needs now is for there to be a fight among Democrats that gets into something that's unseemly. Whether it happens or not, I pledge to you I will not be part of it," Biden said.

The California Primary is 10 months away, and Garcetti says he'll endorse before the March 3rd vote. Garcetti has already welcomed many of the candidates to L.A. and will attend an event with Buttigieg Thursday.

"My responsibility is to those 4 million people here to make sure the candidates are coming here not just for donations, but they're taking care of the issues that matter to us," Garcetti said.