President Obama’s fund-raising tour of New York was highlighted by a few funny moments — including Rep. Charlie Rangel falling asleep during his speech, and the president proclaiming he preferred Showtime’s “Homeland” to the Republican debates.
Obama raced through the city on Thursday, appearing at two events at Upper East Side restaurant Daniel, then at a dinner for 40 at Spike Lee’s townhouse, followed by a fundraiser at the Apollo.
A witness tells us Rangel “passed out” at his table at the Harlem venue’s “A Night to Remember” event and, “His wife Alma was shaking him to wake him during the president’s speech.” A rep for Rangel denied he fell asleep.
Obama had started his evening at a reception and discussion with Jewish leaders at Daniel about relations between Israel and the United States. The event was thrown by UBS’s Robert Wolf,
Aryeh Bourkoff, Dr. Daniel Fass and Jeremy Goldberg, among others.
Before the discussion, there was a private reception where Obama met with Harvey Weinstein and Showtime’s Matt Blank. Sources tell us Obama “congratulated [Weinstein] for Meryl Streep’s best actress win for ‘The Iron Lady’ at the Golden Globes.” Obama also congratulated Blank for “Homeland,” his network’s counter-terrorism thriller, which took the Golden Globe for best drama series.
Saying “Homeland” was his favorite show, Obama declared from the stage that he didn’t enjoy watching Republican debates and “prefers” the national-security series.
During the discussion, Obama stressed his strong support for Israel, and discussed the peace process, energy policy and Iran. The event, attended by up to 100, raised about $500,000 for Obama’s reelection campaign.
At Lee’s townhouse, guests included Mariah Carey, decked out in jewels, Nick Cannon, “Fela!” producer Edward Tyler Nahem, MWW CEO Michael Kempner and Bobbi Brown.