Southern California

Bill Clinton to Speak in Place of Hillary Clinton at Beverly Hills Fundraisers

A luncheon is scheduled at the home of Seth MacFarlane, with a performance by Lionel Richie

Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to speak in place of his wife at two fundraisers benefiting her presidential campaign Tuesday in Beverly Hills.

Plans for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to come to the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California Monday and Tuesday for fundraisers and an appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" were canceled after she fell ill at a 9/11 ceremony in New York on Sunday.

Her campaign initially blamed her abrupt departure from the Sept. 11 remembrance on "overheating" but later disclosed that Clinton was diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday and that she's taking antibiotics.

Her spokesman, Nick Merrill, said this morning that she "continues to feel better, but intends to remain at home today, following her doctor's recommendation to rest. In the evening, she will phone in briefly to the event in San Francisco, which is proceeding as scheduled in her absence."

Bill Clinton is set to speak at a Tuesday luncheon at the home of television producer/personality Seth MacFarlane that will include a performance by singer Lionel Richie.

Ticket prices are $5,000, $10,000 and $33,400 per person, according to an invitation obtained by City News Service. The $33,400 figure is the maximum amount an individual can contribute to a national party committee per year.

Tickets are $100,000 per couple for a Tuesday night dinner at the home of Barry Diller, chairman and senior executive of the media and internet company IAC and the travel company Expedia Inc., and his fashion designer wife, Diane von Furstenberg.

Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump reacted to Clinton's illness Monday morning in seemingly non-adversarial language, telling CNBC that he hopes she gets better and that he plans to release a report on his own health this week.

"I saw what was going on with her and I said, you know, I'm going to go do something and I actually took a physical last week and probably, I guess this week, will release the results of it," he told "Squawk Box" in a telephone interview.

"It's quite sad," he said of Clinton's diagnosis. "I hope she gets well soon."

Also reacting this morning was the Green Party candidate, Dr. Jill Stein, a physician.

"It can be easy to forget that presidential candidates are human beings too I sincerely extend my best wishes to Secretary Clinton for a full and speedy recovery," Stein said in a statement.

A USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll of registered voters, meanwhile, found that Clinton holds a lopsided lead over Trump in Democrat Party-dominated California, but weaknesses with younger voters suggest problems that could thwart her campaign in more contested states.

Clinton led Trump by 25 points, 58 percent to 33 percent, when the two candidates were matched head to head in the poll, The Times reported.

When the choices were expanded to include Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Stein, Clinton lost more support than Trump, and the gap between the two narrowed to 20 points. Johnson picked up 11 percent and Stein 6 percent.

"In a state that is more closely contested than California, the Johnson and Stein candidacies have a potential to cause a problem for Clinton," poll director Dan Schnur, who heads USC's Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, told The Times. "Out here, it's probably not going to make a difference."

Trump appears to have no shot at moving California and its 55 electoral votes into contested territory, as he had said he would, according to The Times. Indeed, he creates a significant drag on Republicans down the ballot here.

In every part of the state, voters said they would be less inclined to side with a congressional candidate who had endorsed Trump; statewide, 40 percent said they would be less likely to vote for such a candidate, and 15 percent said they would be more likely.

Copyright CNS - City News Service
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