Hillary Clinton postpones Philly fundraiser [updated]

     Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton listens to a speaker during a campaign stop, Wednesday, June 17, 2015, in Santee, S.C. (David Goldman/AP Photo)

    Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton listens to a speaker during a campaign stop, Wednesday, June 17, 2015, in Santee, S.C. (David Goldman/AP Photo)

    Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton is postponing a fundraiser in Philadelphia to attend funeral services for the pastor killed along with eight others at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

    Comcast Corp. executive David L. Cohen, who was set to host Friday’s fundraiser, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Clinton will instead attend the funeral of South Carolina state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, pastor of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

    President Barack Obama will deliver the eulogy at Pinckney’s funeral.

    Philadelphia attorney and fundraiser Alan Kessler, who was on Clinton’s national finance committee in 2008, told me this fundraiser was not targeting the huge contributions that super PACs, like the pro-Clinton committee Priorities USA, get.

    • WHYY thanks our sponsors — become a WHYY sponsor

     

    “This is completely separate and apart, independent from any of the super PACs you’re reading about,” Kessler said. “This is just campaign money to run the campaign.”

    Tickets were $2,700 each, the maximum allowable donation to a presidential hopeful’s campaign committee. The event was expected to yield several hundred thousand dollars.

    Cohen has a longstanding relationship with the Clinton family. In the 1990s, he was chief of staff to then Mayor Ed Rendell when Bill Clinton was in the White House. The two officials developed a close working relationship, and Cohen was at the heart of everything the Rendell team was doing.

    Cohen has also held fundraisers for President Obama at his home.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    WHYY is your source for fact-based, in-depth journalism and information. As a nonprofit organization, we rely on financial support from readers like you. Please give today.

    Want a digest of WHYY’s programs, events & stories? Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

    Together we can reach 100% of WHYY’s fiscal year goal