A number of donors have told the largest super PAC supporting President Biden that they are keeping their wallets and checkbooks closed while the 81-year-old remains the presumptive Democratic nominee.
The frozen pledges to Future Forward are worth approximately $90 million — and include multiple contributions of $10 million or more, the New York Times reported Friday, citing two sources familiar with the situation.
One donor told the outlet that he had rebuffed approaches by Future Forward for contributions multiple times since Biden shocked the world with his disastrous performance in his June 27 debate with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
The report is another indication that Democratic bundlers have soured on Biden since the debate and have been agitating for the party to replace the president with another candidate — likely Vice President Kamala Harris.
As of Friday afternoon, 20 congressional Democrats had called on Biden to bow out of the 2024 race, with many saying they felt he could not beat Trump, 78.
The identities of the rebel donors were kept private, while an associate of another bundler, billionaire LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, ripped the move as a mistake.
“A funding freeze is a problematic strategy at this point in the election cycle,” said the associate, Rae Steward, who called on donors to give instead to progressive “issue groups” who are “agnostic about who is at the top of the ticket.”
On Wednesday, actor George Clooney, who co-hosted a $30 million fundraiser for Biden last month, called on the incumbent to leave the race, saying Democrats “are not going to win in November with this president.”
Since the debate, opinions about Biden’s political future have been split — with donors and back-bench lawmakers calling on him to get out and House and Senate leadership largely standing by the president.
“I think everyone will be talking over Friday, Saturday and by Sunday you should have some idea of what’s going on,” Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) told reporters Thursday.
Hours later, Biden gave an hour-long press conference to cap the NATO summit in Washington that was studded with errors, including when he referred to Harris as “Vice President Trump” while the audience gasped and groaned.
“The president was able to answer questions that Donald Trump couldn’t even begin to understand,” a Democratic source told The Post Friday when asked for the state of play inside the party, “but, regrettably, those aren’t the questions the American people are asking or worried over right now.”
Biden has repeatedly insisted he will remain in the campaign to the end, arguing that he is the only Democrat proven to have defeated Trump at the ballot box.
“I’m determined on running but I think it’s important that I allay fears by letting them see me out there,” Biden said Thursday during the news conference. “There is so much we can do still and I’m determined to get it done.”
“There are other people who could beat Trump too, but it’s awful hard to start from scratch.”
Biden also insisted that he is fit to serve another four years, and only needed to “pace myself a little more” to avoid a performance like the one he gave at the debate.
However, the president’s campaign has already begun poll-testing Harris head-to-head against Trump, while OpenLabs, a progressive polling non-profit associated with Future Forward, has also surveyed voters on their feelings toward Harris and other potential Democrat picks.
In one OpenLabs poll taken in the aftermath of the debate, the president fared the worst compared to his Democrat counterparts. Adjusted for name recognition, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg came out on top with 301 expected electoral votes, followed by Michigan.Gov. Gretchen Whitmer with 290.
Biden got only 223 electoral votes, while Harris came in at 240 and California Gov. Gavin Newsom got 235.
https://www.cf.org/news/nyt-dem-donors-freeze-90-million-cash-demanding-biden-to-step-down-from-race/?
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