President Joe Biden breezed into Seattle on Thursday, and continues his stay this morning with plans for Earth Day remarks at Seward Park (see tweet at bottom). He also plans to sign an executive order to combat wildfires and deforestation.
But Biden isn’t just talking about the impact of climate change. He’s also tapping into one of Seattle’s vast resources: cash.
Biden attended a private fundraiser Thursday in the Madison Park neighborhood of Seattle, a tony Seattle enclave on the shores of Lake Washington and also home to plenty of tech millionaires.
So, where did the president go?
According to The Daily Mail, the private fundraiser was held at the waterfront home of Mary Snapp and Spencer Frazer, and was hosted by Microsoft President Brad Smith and his wife Kathy Surace-Smith, an executive at Seattle biotechnology company NanoString Technologies.
Snapp is an attorney who has spent more than two decades at Microsoft, and now serves as the vice president of strategic initiatives at the tech giant.
Seattle’s KIRO 7 reported that Smith made introductory remarks at the fundraiser, noting that Biden’s accomplishments in the first 15 months have been “remarkable” and that “no president has ever moved so fast and so far to reduce unemployment in our country.”
Biden reportedly discussed the economic impacts of the war in Ukraine, rebuilding the middle class, and the ongoing tensions between Disney and the Republican party in Florida over the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
It’s no surprise that the Microsoft president was involved in the fundraiser. Biden released a list of 820 of his top fundraisers in November 2020, and Smith was on the list. Smith has taken an active role in Microsoft’s political maneuverings and he was involved in a meeting with Biden and other executives last fall related to mandatory vaccine mandates at companies.
Microsoft declined to comment, and referred questions to the Democratic National Committee.
