As the calls for President Biden to drop out of the presidential race ramp up following his very public display of cognitive decline during the debate, several mega-donors have been making moves to withdraw their support for him and set up a replacement.
One big name is the co-founder of Netflix, Reed Hastings, who handed over more than $20 million to support Democrats in recent years, with $1.5 million going to Biden’s last presidential campaign. He publicly called on the senile president to quit last week and even went on the record with ABC News to criticize Biden’s performance in an interview with George Stephanopoulos.
"Biden is unfortunately in denial about his mental state. He needs to step aside to let a vigorous Democratic leader beat Trump," he asserted.
Former PayPal CEO Bill Harris is another big donor who has had a change of heart recently. He gave the Biden Victory Fund $620,000 in 2020 but told ABC recently that most observers should now view Biden dropping out of the race as “inevitable.”
He is also taking major steps to replace Biden, with his Democrats for the Next Generation PAC pledging to spend $2 million for funding “a series of debates among prominent candidates to become the Democratic nominee for president if Biden steps aside."
It is being viewed as “mini primary” of sorts and an effort to find a true candidate rather than falling back on Kamala Harris simply because she’s the current vice president.
Bill Harris also took issue with the claims of some Democrats that choosing a new candidate would sow division in the party. In fact, he thinks that some lively debate is just what they need to turn the ship around.
He told the Washington Post: “We need drama and a little chaos. I think it can be refreshing and energizing.”
Another PAC aims to go even further, with the Next Generation PAC (not to be confused with Harris’s Democrats for the Next Generation PAC) aiming to raise $100 million for a political escrow and incentive fund that will promote a new candidate.
Donors threatening to take money elsewhere unless Democrats find a new candidate
Meanwhile, Disney heiress Abigail Disney has said she won’t be making previously planned donations to groups that back Biden unless they change their candidate.
"[They] will not receive another dime from me until they bite the bullet and replace Biden at the top of the ticket,” she said.
The chairman of AI ad firm WriteLabel, Gideon Stein, has said he’ll withhold $3.5 million in contributions until Biden is replaced, adding that the other major donors he has spoken to believe that “a new ticket is in the best interest of defeating Donald Trump.”
Lost creator Damon Lindelof has called for a “DEMbargo” among Hollywood donors in an opinion piece for Deadline that targets Biden as well as other candidates that will only end if the president withdraws his candidacy.
Investor Ted Dintersmith is part of a movement to set up a “blitz primary” that would see celebrities like Taylor Swift, Stephen Curry and Oprah Winfrey introducing new candidates to voters, although its own planners doubt it will come to fruition.
So far, nine members of the House have called on Biden to step aside, and there could be more joining the fray when the House Democratic caucus meets on Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner is said to be trying to organize Senate Democrats into joining forces to present a united front in encouraging Biden to step down.
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