Joe Biden campaign rejects comedian Louis C.K.’s $2,800 donation
The 2020 presidential campaign for former Vice President Joe Biden has returned a $2,800 donation from disgraced comedian Louis C.K., a Biden campaign official confirmed to The Times on Thursday.
C.K., who has acknowledged and apologized for sexually harassing five women, made the donation early last month as Biden was picking up steam in the primary elections.
No additional information was given about the Biden campaign’s decision. And C.K. did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.
In November 2017, C.K. was one of the first offenders swept up in the #MeToo movement when multiple women claimed in a New York Times investigation that the comic had masturbated in front of them.
C.K. later confirmed the allegations, releasing a statement saying, “These stories are true. ... I’m aware of the extent of the impact of my actions.”
Louis C.K. once sold out large arenas like the Forum in Inglewood. Now he’s playing 2,000-seat theaters as he tries to write his own post-#MeToo playbook.
He has since made an effort to reboot his career, staging a bizarre comeback tour in 2019, but has been widely shunned by the entertainment — and now political — community.
The presumptive Democratic nominee’s image has taken some hits from sexual misconduct allegations as well. Last week, a former aide to Biden, Tara Reade, alleged in interviews with the Associated Press that Biden sexually assaulted her during the early 1990s when he was a senator.
A representative for Biden called Reade’s allegation “untrue,” adding, “this absolutely did not happen.”
Earlier in the Democratic primary, several women — including Reade — accused Biden of unwanted touching in the form of hugs, hand holding and other actions.
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