Donors have reportedly informed Future Forward, the largest Biden Super PAC, that if President Joe Biden remains on the Democrat Party’s presidential ticket, roughly $90 million in donations will be frozen.
Two anonymous sources who are familiar with the conversations told the New York Times that several “eight-figure commitments” were among the frozen donations.
One adviser for Future Forward, which is led by Chauncey McLean, a former Democrat Party operative, reportedly told the outlet that they “expected” the donors who had frozen their donations to come back “once the current uncertainty” regarding the Democrat Party’s presidential ticket was over.
This comes weeks after Biden’s lackluster debate performance on June 27 against former President Donald Trump. During the presidential debate, Biden appeared to freeze, spoke with a hoarse voice, and had difficulty getting through his prepared closing statement.
News of the frozen donations also comes a day after Biden held a solo press conference on Thursday where he mistakenly referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as Trump and mistakenly introduced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as being Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Biden met with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D) on Thursday night where Jeffries revealed concerns from House Democrats about Biden remaining in the presidential race.
The two sources did not reveal to the outlet which donors had frozen the roughly $90 million in contributions:
The two people briefed on the frozen pledges declined to say which individual donors were pulling back promised checks, which were estimated to total around or above $90 million. It was not clear how much of the pledged money was earmarked for Future Forward’s super PAC versus its nonprofit arm, which has also been running advertising in key battleground states. The super PAC has been shying away from making major strategic decisions until it gets clarity on who will be atop the ticket, according to a separate person close to the group.
In the aftermath of Biden’s debate performance, several Democrats have come out and called for the president to withdraw from the race and “step aside.” Some donors, including Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, have also called for Biden to “step aside.”
Most recently, George Clooney released an op-ed in the New York Times, weeks after hosting a star-studded fundraiser for Biden, revealing that he does not believe that Democrats can win the election with Biden atop the ticket.
