Calls are growing in the US for Vice President Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race.
Democratic donors have warned that Biden’s refusal to step aside has “drained” funds for the November election and threatens to undermine the party’s efforts to defeat Donald Trump.
According to a report in the Financial Times (FT), donors have become a key audience in the battle over Biden’s future, with some aggressively pushing for his withdrawal even as Democratic members of Congress waver on his candidacy.
Their growing willingness to withdraw from the campaign, expressed in interviews with donors from Wall Street to Hollywood, poses a new risk to Biden’s re-election if he remains in the race for the White House, which is expected to be the most expensive in US history.
Donors say ‘money is drying up’
“As of today, it’s going to be very difficult for the president to raise money from big donors. It’s drying up so fast that it’s going to be extraordinarily difficult for him to stay in the race.”
Another donor, who has been in the party for decades, said the money was “drying up” and added: “When I talk to other donors, nine to one, they don’t plan to contribute … because they’re worried about losing.
Biden has sought to allay donors’ concerns in recent days, and on Monday he addressed them by participating in a conference call moderated by campaign manager Jennifer O’Malley Dillon.
While critical Democrats, including the Congressional Black Caucus and the Hispanic Caucus, have offered support for Biden, the effort has given Biden some breathing room as no member of the official party leadership has openly called for him to step aside.
But several high-profile Biden supporters, including Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, hotel magnate Stewart Bainum Jr. and actor George Clooney, have explicitly cited the president’s mental instability in their calls for him to step aside.
Some ‘fat wallets’ continue to pour in money
One Democratic donor said a long-time donor had refused to even hear an offer of more money. “It’s really hard to raise money in any way. Since the debate, [donors] have gone from not enthusiastic to just angry,” the fundraiser said.
Biden’s campaign said the president’s poor debate performance against Trump late last month had not hurt fundraising, pointing to $38 million raised shortly after the event.
Roger Hochschild, former chairman of Discover and one of Biden’s biggest donors, suggested in an email on Wednesday that Democrats were “coalescing” around their presumptive presidential nominee after the “initial wave of concern”.
Another major Biden donor, Peter Lowy, former CEO of the Westfield Group and an investor in the English soccer team Leeds United, donated $929,600 to the president’s joint fundraising group on Monday, the largest amount.
“I’m a businessman and I make decisions based on results,” Lowy said, pointing to the strong US economy under Biden as one of the reasons for his support.
In the 2020 race, Biden became the first candidate in US history to raise more than $1 billion, beating Trump, who raised $774 million, according to OpenSecrets. Including outside groups, the 2020 election cost more than $2.7 billion.
Clooney’s call for Biden to ‘step aside’ could be effective
On the other hand, Clooney’s call for Biden to drop out of the race could encourage others to take a similar stance. Last month, the actor spearheaded a $28 million fundraising drive in Hollywood.
Some Wall Street donors are now preparing to put more pressure on Biden to withdraw, but he said he was disappointed by his intransigence.
“I never thought I’d say this, but I’m hoping he makes a big gaffe,” said one Democratic donor in New York, adding that it would force Democratic elders like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer or South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn to give a “time’s up” speech.
Some donors warned that if Biden did not withdraw, the party risked losing both houses of Congress as well as the White House.
Pelosi joins the chorus
On the other hand, Nancy Pelosi also gave a strong indication that she expects Biden to withdraw.
Pelosi, a former speaker of the House of Representatives and one of the party’s most influential members of Congress, said in an interview with MSNBC: “It’s up to the president to decide whether or not to run. We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running out,” Pelosi said in an interview with MSNBC.
Clooney, on the other hand, wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times that he likes Biden, but that “the only battle he cannot win is the battle against time”.
Clooney said: “None of us can win. It’s devastating to say this, but the Joe Biden I was with at the fundraiser three weeks ago was not the Joe ‘big f-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the man we all saw in the debate,” he said.
