{"id":290422,"date":"2024-07-01T07:06:13","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T07:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=290422"},"modified":"2024-07-02T06:37:52","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T06:37:52","slug":"exclusive-influential-donors-want-to-pressure-biden-to-drop-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=290422","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Influential donors want to pressure Biden to drop out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy,\u00a0 Phillip M. Bailey \u2013 USA Today June 28, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n

To many major donors of President Biden\u2019s re-election campaign, one thing is obvious after last night’s debate debacle:\u00a0things need to change\u00a0\u2013 and fast.<\/p>\n

A hoarse-sounding Biden who struggled to finish sentences during his debate with former President Trump Thursday night did little to quell fears among the American people already worried about his age. For his most ardent supporters and donors, the 81-year-old president\u2019s performance was \u201cexcruciating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betty Cotton of New York, who has donated thousands to President Biden\u2019s re-election campaign and serves as a regional finance committee member, said it was hard to watch.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a disaster last night,” she said. “He should seriously think about stepping down so that we don’t lose the election.”And donors are considering putting their money where their mouths are.<\/p>\n

Less than 24 hours since the two men left the debate stage, Democratic donors were feverishly texting each other about facing a free fall ahead of the August convention in Chicago. With the clock ticking, bundlers \u2212 the people who give and rake in large sums \u2212 were openly wondering if they should be thinking about putting their money elsewhere. Other givers are having backroom discussions about whether they should step up to pressure Biden to step down directly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really serious and I\u2019d like to explore what the options are,\u201d Cotton said.<\/p>\n

Her plan for Friday consisted of getting on a lot of Zooms and air out the concerns of fellow donors and organizers. She\u2019s been fielding panicked texts and emails since Thursday night, minutes into the debate starting.<\/p>\n

One former Obama Administration official, who served on Obama\u2019s reelection committee and has raised funds for Biden, said they woke up to multiple text chains of current donors and former administration officials (both Obama-Biden and Biden-Harris) all \u201cfreaking out.\u201d Other text threads expressed being \u201cextremely disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n

One recurring theme of these exchanges was whether Biden would be graceful enough to step aside so that the party could nominate someone at the convention, they said.<\/p>\n

Donors sound off possible Democratic contenders<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Among the names being floated by donors as alternatives were Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.<\/p>\n

Shekar Narasimhan, founder of the AAPI Victory Fund, a political action committee, said his phone was \u201cblowing up all morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

A month ago, he\u2019d co-hosted a campaign fundraiser for Biden, which raised more than $1million.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the debate performance by President Biden was terrible,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has the unfortunate result of reinforcing the opinion that Biden is too old and not capable.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Narasimhan, this puts the spotlight on Vice President Kamala Harris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 .<\/p>\n

Harris should no longer be seen just as Biden\u2019s surrogate, but as his principal and as somebody that could step into his shoes if necessary, and carry on the job, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cChange is necessary after last night\u2019s debate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Capitol Hill backs Biden publicly … for now<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Biden emerged Friday in North Carolina making clear he has no plans to put an end<\/a> on his reelection bid.<\/p>\n

“Folks, I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to. But I know what I do know: I know how to tell the truth,” Biden said as his campaign rally drew to a close.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the president will face donors at planned fundraisers in New York\u2019s Long Island and in New Jersey before returning to Camp David.<\/p>\n

Asked if Biden was considering not running for re-election after Thursday, a campaign spokesperson said: \u201cabsolutely not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden’s reelection campaign said that it raised $14 million on the day of the debate and the morning after.<\/p>\n

Top Democratic leaders outside of the Biden campaign on Friday were noticeably reticent. On Capitol Hill, congressional Democrats ducked discussing Biden\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a former House speaker, ignored multiple questions by reporters about the president\u2019s performance. The California Democrat did say, “compared to (Trump) who was lying the whole time, we saw integrity on one side and dishonesty on the other.”<\/p>\n

Asked for reaction Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters: “We\u2019re going to win the House in November.”<\/p>\n

During a gaggle, longtime Biden ally Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.)\u00a0said the president should “stay the course.”<\/p>\n

Those outside the Beltway, however, are channeling Obama’s calm when asked about Thursday’s debate. They emphasized how voters are clear-eyed about the realities of Biden and Trump.<\/p>\n

“I believe everyone\u2019s mind has been made up for four years,” Democrat Anton Gunn, a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Clyburn, who worked on the 2008 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

He said voters have known these two candidates for years and will keep a steady head when it comes time to vote in November.<\/p>\n

“You are either for the convicted felon and incessant liar, Donald Trump, or against him,” said Gunn, who worked in the Obama White House. “This debate will not change those facts.”<\/p>\n

Donors wait to see how Biden will respond<\/strong><\/h2>\n

But the political spin did not help assuage the fears of organizers and donors.<\/p>\n

Francesca Hagadus, a longtime Democratic political organizer, from Pleasantville, New York, said she would like to see Biden stepping aside but is worried about the potential chaos it could create.<\/p>\n

She couldn’t sit through the debate, “I had to turn it off.”<\/p>\n

Another former Obama administration official said the only person who would have any say in influencing Biden’s decision would be the first lady. Not Obama.<\/p>\n

“If anything, Biden held a grudge that Obama was one of the people that convinced him not to run in 2016 and he regretted that,” they said.<\/p>\n

“Jill Biden will be under tremendous pressure to talk to him but he is incredibly stubborn. I think it’s going to come down to Jill,” they said. “If she chooses to.”<\/p>\n

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA TODAY.<\/em>\u00a0You can follow her on X, formerly Twitter, <\/em><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But Biden is reputed to be stubborn under pressure. While First Lady Jill Biden is still reportedly behind Joe\u2019s bid for a second term<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":290423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Current_Affairs","category-Inside_the_White_House_and_Washingtons_Beltway"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=290422"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":290424,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290422\/revisions\/290424"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/290423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=290422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=290422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=290422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}