Former Democrat Fundraiser Says Kamala Harris Campaign Paid Beyoncé “Tens Of Thousands Of Dollars” For Houston Rally Speech

Money well spent, eh?

There’s been a lot of talk since Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential election about what went wrong in her campaign.

The campaign spent over a BILLION dollars in just 107 days, and the media breathlessly declared that the vice president ran a “perfect” campaign because she managed to get the endorsement of celebrities like Taylor Swift and Queen Latifah. But none of that really mattered, because Harris managed to lose every swing state, as well as the popular vote, delivering a historic second non-consecutive term to President Donald Trump.

There’s obviously been a lot of finger-pointing at the campaign from people who are apparently trying to keep themselves from having to admit that Harris was just a terrible candidate, and people have even blamed Joe Rogan for the loss because he didn’t have her on his podcast like he did Trump (despite Rogan claiming that he would have welcomed Harris at any time and that the campaign would never commit to an interview in the first place).

And another major source of scrutiny has been just what that billion dollars was spent on.

After the election, it was reported that the Harris campaign spent $100,000 just to build a set for an hour long interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast with Alex Cooper. And questions have also come up about just how much the vice president spent on the celebrities who appeared at her rallies.

During the campaign, Harris held a number of large rallies featuring performances from artists like Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, and even Oprah appeared at a rally to endorse the vice president. And in one of the most high-profile moments of the campaign, Beyoncé appeared with Harris during a rally in Houston – but instead of performing as was rumored, she only gave a speech, leaving many in attendance disappointed that they didn’t get to see a performance from Bey.

Back in the fall, speculation began to arise that the Harris campaign was paying these celebrities for their endorsements. But the campaign denied that any of the names who appeared with Harris were paid for their endorsement or their appearance.

A former Democrat fundraiser, though, is calling bullshit.

Lindy Li is a former fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee who supported both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris during their presidential campaigns, and helped the party raise money for both candidates. She served as a delegate for Harris at the 2024 DNC, and was a member of the DNC Finance Committee. But since the election, she’s become critical of the Democrat party and the Harris campaign, sounding the alarm on the failures of the campaign and calling Democrats a “cult” after receiving backlash for speaking out against them.

During a recent appearance on the Shawn Ryan Show podcast, Li pulled back the curtain on some of the spending she saw while working with the Harris campaign – including those payments to celebrities that the campaign had denied:

“Despite her repeated denials, Beyoncé was paid. The Harris campaign, she was paid tens of thousands of dollars to not sing. Well no, she refused to sing. She was paid tens of thousands of dollars to give a speech that no one wanted to hear.

And Kamala Harris thought all these people came out to Texas to hear her speak? Yeah right. They came to hear Beyoncé sing…

They told NBC News that Beyoncé would perform. Beyoncé came out and gave a speech, this boring-ass speech, and just left without performing. And then Kamala Harris got booed. She got drowned in boos, because people didn’t really care what she had to say. They were there to hear Queen Bey.”

But Li claims that it wasn’t just Bey who was paid for her appearance.

“Beyoncé was paid to show up. Cardi B was paid. Cardi B, who famously said she wasn’t paid, her production company was paid to show up. Katy Perry was paid. Christina Aguilera was paid. These people were all paid.

And Oprah wasn’t paid a million. She was paid two million, ok? Let’s be very clear. Two million to Harpo Productions… Oprah’s production company was paid $2 million to put on that town hall…

Al Sharpton was paid half a million dollars moments before he interviewed her. An MSNBC anchor, Al Sharpton, was paid money. A so-called journalist was paid money moments before he interviewed the vice president.”

Of course Li says that some of these payments were couched as “production costs” or “advertising costs,” so that may be why the campaign feels comfortable saying that these people were never “paid” for their appearance. But Li says that regardless of what they call it, it was wrong:

“This is how donor money was spent. Donor money was basically set on fire for five star hotels, luxury trips, private charter planes, just this ridiculous stuff.

A lot of these donors are hardworking Americans. I had people giving anywhere from $10 to $15, all the way to a million dollars. All of them worked hard for their money. And if they knew their money was spent this way, they never would have given.”

Not that any of this is really a surprise. But it just goes to show you how little politicians really think of the average American.