Donors supporting President Biden’s re-election bid reportedly are now backing a “Plan B” and are describing the situation as “Armageddon” following the 81-year-old’s widely panned debate performance against former President Trump last week.
The development comes as Biden’s campaign announced that it has raised $264 million over the last three months, including at least $27 million since last Thursday’s debate. But behind the scenes, donors are spooked over the way Biden handled himself onstage, reports say.
“Unless he shakes up the campaign and shows leadership, it’s going to be a really, really tough time with money,” said one Democrat, identified by The Washington Post as a top fundraiser.
The source added that “it’s Armageddon” now among Biden donors and “people have got to see changes.”
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President Joe Biden speaks in the Cross Hall of the White House on Monday, July 1. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)
The newspaper reports that another major supporter who has given to Biden created a Google Docs poll following the debate to question other donors about where they stand.
That person said of the 65 donors who responded, around 74% supported the option of “we need a Plan B” — which includes consideration of new Democratic presidential and vice-presidential candidates – while 15% said they stood behind Biden and 11% were undecided, according to The Washington Post.
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President Biden and former President Trump debated on Thursday night. (Getty Images)
John Morgan, another top Democratic donor, told Politico that the “whole planning [and] preparation” that Biden had received for the debate was “political malpractice,” specifically blaming senior adviser Anita Dunn, former chief of staff Ron Klain and Dunn’s husband, Bob Bauer, who is Biden’s personal lawyer.
“I think he has a misplaced trust in these three people, and I believe he has from the inception,” Morgan told Politico, while a Democratic strategist from a battleground state added that “The number of people who have access to the president has gotten smaller and smaller and smaller” and “They’ve been digging deeper into the bunker for months now.”
Democratic donor Whitney Tilson, a former hedge fund manager, also told The New York Times that he received a scathing text from a House Democrat regarding the debate.
President Biden looks on as he participates in the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle with former President Trump at CNN’s studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
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“Biden’s debate performance was a catastrophe from which there may be no recovery,” the text reportedly said.
