President Joe Biden’s Hollywood donors are abandoning ship — or at the very least pausing their donations — following the 81-year-old’s debate against former President Donald Trump last week. Entertainment donors added that they felt insulted by the campaign’s claim that Biden had actually won the debate, saying, “Do they think we’re idiots? We have eyes.”
“I am sure many of you tuned into the debate last night,” Hailey Sasse, the Biden Victory Funds Southern California Finance Director said in a Friday email, according to a report by Deadline.
“Our team has received feedback from folks today, and I wanted to share a couple of highlights and resources to help navigate conversations you might be having,” Sasse’s email added.
The email went on to say, “The choice in this election is as simple as this: Donald Trump will destroy our democracy, Joe Biden will defend it.”
“This is the same race that it was before the debate, and post-debate polling shows that voters’ opinions were not changed in any significant way,” the campaign added. “This race is going to be decided in individual battleground states in November 2024, just as it was in April 2023.”
Courtesy of CNN Presidential DebateThe email, as Deadline noted, was “almost like the debate free fall never happened and the likes of the New York Times Editorial Board isn’t pleading with the president to drop out for the good of the nation.”
Therefore, “the money train [to Biden’s campaign] could be coming a halt or at least a pause unless the campaign has either a come to Joe moment or a radical reset,” Deadline reported, citing Democrat donor sources.
One industry leader who regularly attends Biden fundraisers told the outlet that they and others have decided to “wait and see” before writing another check.
A New York City-based entertainment heavyweight reportedly echoed the sentiment, telling Deadline the Trump vs. Biden debate “was a nightmare,” adding, “We would be enabling it if we just kept giving.”
“There’s going to be a pause at the very least,” another political insider on the West coast told the outlet. “How long it last depends on how bad it gets, and if the campaign takes real action. We can’t have a repeat of last night.”
Others, meanwhile, were not as kind to Biden, with one telling Deadline the president’s performance during last week’s debate was “A fucking joke.”
“Do that really think we’re idiots, we have eyes,” the individual, who Deadline described as “another top Tinseltown donor,” added.
Entertainment donors even added that they were personally insulted by the campaign’s claim that Biden had actually won the debate.
The winner of tonight’s debate 😎pic.twitter.com/3FZgZSQc3F
— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) June 28, 2024
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