Democrat donors reportedly worry their money in support of President Joe Biden is going down the drain, according to Reuters, Axios, and New York Times reports on donor conversations with the Biden campaign.
The donors’ fear seems to underscore their deep doubts about Biden’s political viability after his terrible debate performance and subsequent almost five-minute speech Monday when he took no questions and his face appeared orange.
The Biden campaign’s National Finance Committee held calls with donors in recent days, four donors on a Monday call told Axios:
- “It was a damage control call,” one participant said.
- “I don’t know what the pathway forward is, and I think they are trying to figure that out, too,” another donor told Axios. “We all saw what we saw.”
The campaign fielded numerous “pointed” questions about Biden’s ability to make it to the November election. One asked, “Can the president make it through a campaign and another term?” a source told Reuters about a second Sunday call with donors.
The call on Sunday, which took about 40 minutes, turned intense after a donor asked Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez if Biden was willing to offer a refund if he dropped out of the race, a source familiar with the call told Reuters.
“Some of us on that call have privately discussed if we should put our money somewhere else,” one donor reportedly said. “The past few days have been very disappointing.”The Biden campaign, however, tried to claim that polling does not show Biden should drop out of the race.
But 41 percent of Democrat voters want Biden to drop out of the race, a Monday USA Today/Suffolk University poll found, while only 51 percent want him to remain on the ticket.
The survey represents one of the first post-debate polls that Democrat operatives and donors will study to determine the extent of the damage to Biden’s candidacy following his debate performance.
“Everyone just needs to breathe through the nose for minute,” Chris Korge, the finance chair of the Democratic National Committee, said at the end of the call, the New York Times reported.
“The media has spent a ton of time blowing this out of proportion!” Quentin Faulks, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, reportedly said on the phone call.
“He’s probably in better health than most of us!” co-chair Jen O’Malley Dillon claimed:
The Biden campaign sent out their top interns to defend Biden’s humiliating debate performance:
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 2, 2024
“The media has spent a ton of time blowing this out of proportion!”
“He’s probably in better health than most of us!” 🥴 pic.twitter.com/JP8y44WFK0
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
