Biden jabs at Trump in speech to 100 at Westchester fundraiser with actor Michael Douglas

President Joe Biden spoke for 20 minutes to about 100 guests seated under a tent at the campaign fundraiser on Thursday at the Westchester County home of actors Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, according to an account by a White House reporter admitted to the private event.

Biden, who had flown to Westchester after an event in Syracuse earlier that day, arrived at the Irvington mansion in his motorcade about 6:30 p.m. and began speaking at about 7:15 p.m., following an introduction by Douglas and then his son, Dylan Michael Douglas. Zeta-Jones couldn't be there because she was filming a TV series, Douglas told the crowd.

Biden, speaking to donors who had paid at least $3,000 and as much as $100,000 to attend, opened with banter about Douglas playing Benjamin Franklin in a new TV mini-series and a quip that he and Douglas "both married way above our stations."

He gave a shoutout to two current and former congressmen in the crowd, both running in Westchester in different districts this year. One was Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who's being challenged in a June 25 Democratic primary by Westchester County Executive George Latimer; the other was former Rep. Mondaire Jones, who's taking on Republican Rep. Mike Lawler on Nov. 5.

Biden talked about his big fundraising haul so far. He also accused the media of citing polls that show him lagging but not those in which he leads in his tight race with Donald Trump. Then came jabs at his opponent.

“I know not everyone’s feeling the enthusiasm,” he said, according to a pool report by New York Times reporter Zolan Kanno-Youngs. “The other day a defeated looking guy said he was feeling” crushed by debt. “I said, 'Donald, I know.'”

He went after Trump for Florida's six-week abortion ban and the Supreme Court appointments by Trump that made possible those new restrictions, following the court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“The voters are going to hold him accountable,” Biden said. “Trump and his MAGA crowd don’t have a clue about the power of women.”

Crowd scene: Onlookers and protesters: a split scene outside Biden fundraiser in Westchester County

He took more shots at Trump for the "chaos" of his presidency, his handling of the pandemic, his "love letters" to North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, and the violent rampage at the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021.

He closed by touting feats from his own tenure, on health care, climate change and computer chip manufacturing — the subject of his visit to Syracuse, where he was celebrating Micron's plans for a major chip-making complex.

He didn't linger after his speech. Less than 10 minutes later, according to the account, his motorcade pulled away to return to the county airport.

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Inside Joe Biden fundraiser at Westchester home of Douglas, Zeta-Jones