Hollywood donors are getting antsy about Joe Biden’s ability to fight off President Trump’s jabs. The people who comprise the Hollywood ATM for Democrat candidates want Biden to get aggressive and hit back.

Maybe Biden thought it would show the Hollywood bigwigs that he’s a tough guy and can take the heat from Trump if he broadened his criticisms and included Rudy Guiliani. He told supporters at a fundraiser that Rudy’s “a thug”.

“The guy’s a thug, Giuliani. No, he’s a thug. I know him,” Biden told about 100 people gathered at the Brentwood home of Paramount’s Jim Gianopulos and his wife, Ann.

According to a pool report, Biden continued, “And the president is the most dishonorable president in American history. And folks, he picked the wrong guy to pick a fight with, because I’ll tell you what. I’m going to beat him like a drum.”

Biden did some fundraising in Los Angeles Thursday after delivering an attack against Trump Wednesday in New Hampshire. It was the first time good old Joe spoke out forcefully in response to Trump’s remarks about Biden and his son, Hunter The Biden donors would like more, please.

“This isn’t make-or-break time for the Vice President, but it is time to start hitting Trump harder,” said one top industry donor of Biden’s responses to him, his family and his campaign. “Calling for impeachment was one thing, but Biden needs to stop coasting and get out in front of this,” the A-lister added.

Hollywood executives held two fundraisers Thursday – one in the afternoon and one in the evening – and they are looking for more than Biden repeating over and over again that he will “beat Trump like a drum”. Polls show Elizabeth Warren rising and she’s overtaken his lead in both Iowa and New Hampshire, at least today as I write this, according to RCP. The two are bouncing back and forth, though Biden has managed to keep his support relatively steady even without maintaining an aggressive campaign schedule.

Biden has essentially been phoning it in and looking as though he is feeling as entitled as Hillary Clinton was in 2016. His campaign has been caught flat-footed in defense against the charges of Biden family corruption in Ukraine and China, too. It is puzzling why Team Biden wasn’t prepared and ready to respond when all of this first began. Coming out Wednesday as he did with a bunch of name-calling and macho talk of beating Trump like a drum wasn’t very convincing. Donors are wondering if Biden’s up to the task of a tough general election campaign.

That doesn’t mean that they think Biden should do a 60 Minutes-style sitdown to go point-by-point through the Ukraine-Hunter Biden connection, as some believe that would be giving implicit credibility to Trump’s attacks. However, there is a sense that Biden has a unique opportunity to break through, particularly at a time when the Massachusetts senator is drawing so much attention for her rise in the polls and fundraising.

Biden still has strong support in Los Angeles but some are starting to speak up. Elizabeth Warren is an alternative but not necessarily the top choice if Biden fades. Show biz is a business, after all, and most of the show business execs are not quite ready for socialism.

Meanwhile, Warren, who has shunned the type of tony, high-dollar fundraising events that are a staple of Hollywood’s political scene, has a number of fans in showbiz. “There’s definitely an uptick in interest,” Bojarsky said, adding that “people have started to talking about how she can broaden her appeal.”

Right now, a number of Biden’s industry supporters still feel Sen. Warren will prove too far to the left to win a general election, even as she leads the ex-VP among Dems in some polls. And even in an industry that leans heavily to the left in theory, attacks on the rich have their limits for some upper crust donors, what with Warren’s proposal for a wealth tax and vows to overhaul other aspects of American capitalism.

Biden will have to up his game if he wants to hold on to the money in Los Angeles. The question remains, is he up to the task? Time will tell if he’s “going anywhere” or not.

Let me make something clear to President Trump: I’m not going anywhere.

You’re not going to destroy me. And you’re not going to destroy my family. I don’t care how dirty the attacks get.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 11, 2019