Lindy Li raised millions for Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign and Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign. She became a key fundraiser for the DNC after losing her 2018 congressional run. Now she says the campaign she worked for told lies to raise money, and she wants the public to know about it.
She details this in her new book, “Unburdened: A Former Democrat Insider’s Shocking Account of Political Power, Betrayal, and Party Collapse.” In an excerpt, she describes a convention where the campaign promised Beyonce would perform, and a rally where the mystery guest turned out to be Katy Perry.
Beyonce’s Twice-Tweeted Non-Appearance
Li says the campaign promised Beyonce would perform on the final night of the convention. She did not appear. The excerpt compares the deception to “Dementors from Harry Potter.”
A campaign insider named Alex said the Beyonce debacle marked the tipping point for the campaign. Li says she felt compelled to tell the truth about the campaign, even though doing so cost her personally.
Beyonce had performed for Clinton in 2016. But Trump’s win splattered egg on her sequins. The campaign tried to fix that with a promise of a new performance, and delivered nothing.
The Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift Lineup
The VIP invitation to the rally in Philadelphia promised a lineup of mystery superstars. A high-ranking Biden White House official claimed with certainty that Bad Bunny would perform.
On the night before the election, Fox News journalist Jacqui Heinrich suggested it would be Taylor Swift. The theories included:
- Taylor as home-state halo
- Beyoncé for redemption
- Bad Bunny as youthquake bait
None of them were right. The mystery guest was revealed to be Katy Perry.
| Performance | Promised | Delivered |
|---|---|---|
| Beyonce | Convention finale | None |
| Bad Bunny | Rally lineup | None |
| Taylor Swift | Rally mystery guest | Katy Perry |
Thirty thousand people attended the rally in freezing weather.
The Pattern at a Glance
The convention drew fifty thousand delegates, alternates, volunteers and press to Chicago. The book is scheduled for release Sept. 22.
The pattern is consistent across both cases. A big name is promised, a crowd gathers, and a lesser name steps in at the last moment.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs individual freedom and small business, and is against treating politics as a horse race between two machines that both gather power. That means the paper is against campaigns promising performances they cannot deliver, especially when the promises draw crowds into cold weather.
The pattern described here fits that view exactly: a big name is promised, a crowd gathers, and a lesser name steps in at the last moment. That is not freedom. That is a campaign using people’s time and hope as a kind of bait, and the people who do it should be called on it.
The paper would want campaigns to simply tell the truth about what they can deliver, without promises they cannot keep. People have every right to know whether a performer will actually show up before they decide to attend an event. The paper would also want to see more candidates willing to admit their mistakes, as Li has done, rather than covering them up.
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