Donations to the campaign are frozen amid doubts about Biden’s candidacy

Democratic donors are deeply concerned about President Joe Biden’s viability as a candidate as the party continues to debate the path forward — and are holding back on large contributions, according to multiple sources familiar with the effort.

“’Everything is frozen’ because no one knows what will happen. Everyone is in wait-and-see mode,” a Democratic strategist told CNNnoting that donors are hyperfocused on what Biden is doing, including interviews and his press conference on Thursday.

Donors often operate behind the scenes and, sources say, have become increasingly anxious about Biden’s candidacy following his poor debate performance last month. And on Wednesday (10), George Clooney, who was one of Biden’s biggest supporters and donors in Hollywood, took the extraordinary step of publicly asking him to drop out of the presidential race.

Clooney’s op-ed, the strategist said, “is going to hurt.”

Statements by former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday morning on MSNBC also raised new questions and echoed among donors. Pelosi said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that “it’s up to the president to decide whether he’s going to run. We are all encouraging him to make this decision because time is running out.”

“Large donations have dropped off considerably since the debate,” one Democratic fundraiser told CNNadding that small-dollar donations are running their course, but noted that the campaign is too vast to survive on small donations alone.

A CNN reached out to the Biden campaign for comment.

Earlier this week, Biden tried to reassure donors in a call, saying he will stay in the race and arguing that he is still the best candidate to defeat his Republican rival, Donald Trump.

“My only job is to beat Donald Trump,” Biden said, according to one of the call participants, who said Biden thanked donors and renewed his commitment to keeping the fight alive.

But that didn’t calm all the nerves.

“It’s been a difficult time,” said a source familiar with the fundraising situation. “In the short term, money is a challenge, but the situation is fluid.”

“The money that is coming in is drying up,” another source close to the fundraising efforts told CNNdescribing donors as very, very frustrated and very, very worried.

This has already been reflected in the fundraising events held after the debate: an event held at the home of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy raised $3.7 million – less than half the amount raised at a pre-debate event at the home of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe in the week before the debate.

Meanwhile, organizers of at least one fundraiser in Chicago scheduled during the Democratic National Convention have decided not to move forward with the mid-August event, a source with knowledge of the discussions told CNN.

Shortly after Biden’s debate performance, organizers paused talks about planning the fundraiser until after the July 4th holiday to allow the dust to settle. This week, the organizing committee decided not to go ahead with the event, citing disagreement over how to proceed in the face of continued erosion of support for Biden’s candidacy.

The event, planned as a luncheon for a few dozen wealthy Chicagoans, was intended to mobilize support among party loyalists and successful locals as a show of support for the big event in their city.

While the lunch itself was expected to raise less than $1 million for the campaign, the mood of the attendees — many of whom contributed millions to Biden’s 2020 campaign and associated entities — serves as a warning sign in some deeply blue circles. of the donor class.

A Biden campaign spokesperson told CNN that the event was not associated with their official fundraising schedule.

Nearly two weeks after the debate, some Democratic donors continue to issue public warnings that the party could lose the White House in November if Biden remains the nominee, and say they are increasingly concerned about his stubborn resistance. The president has insisted that he will continue in the race and expressed frustration with “the elites” who are asking him to withdraw from the race.

Damon Lindelof, a Hollywood screenwriter and producer who recently urged Democratic donors to withhold their contributions until Biden resigns, told CNN in an email Wednesday that he is “pretty firm” in that opinion.

“I maintain that Joe Biden is an excellent president, and I am saddened that the language within the party is attack/defend/retreat rather than a thoughtful and considered debate about where we are and how to get where we need to be,” Lindelof said.

“I think the characterization that the only people calling for this conversation are ‘elites’ ignores the polls and the tens of millions of Americans who have been saying for a while now that they are deeply concerned about our candidate,” he added.

Maggie Kulyk, a Democratic donor who runs a wealth management firm, said her view that Biden needs to resign is shared by “people I talk to all the time — friends, clients, etc.”

“They all say the same thing, that he shouldn’t be at the head of the ticket,” she said in a phone interview. “Washington politicians or someone with some influence needs to grow a backbone and tell the truth that is in plain sight,” she added, that Biden is dealing with “clear cognitive issues.”

“That kind of waiting for him to make another big mistake as an excuse, to me, seems absurd,” Kulyk said. “The debate was the thing. We saw that.”

Kulyk sits on the board of the Women Donors Network, but said she was not speaking on behalf of the group of contributors.

News of the cancellation of the Chicago fundraiser came hours after Clooney asked the president to drop out of the race, just weeks after the actor was featured at a major fundraiser for the president’s re-election campaign. .

Clooney wrote that the Biden he saw during a June 15 fundraiser that also included former President Barack Obama, “wasn’t the Joe Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020.”

“He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate,” Clooney added, referring to Biden’s faltering and disastrous performance in the June 27 presidential debate at CNN.

Biden’s team is currently planning to hold fundraisers in Austin, Denver and two in California — one in Laguna Beach and another in Northern California — in July, according to a source familiar with the plans.

Donors in other parts of the country told CNN that its events are on hold until Biden’s path becomes clearer.

John Morgan, a Florida lawyer and longtime Biden supporter, was working with the campaign to hold a fundraiser in the state, likely in early September, but he said this week that the event is “on hold.”

“I don’t even bother them,” he said of contacting campaign officials about the status of the event. “I’m not going to call them because they have bigger problems to deal with than an event in Florida in September. They have to overcome all the critics.”

As for himself, Morgan said he remains committed to supporting Biden and is willing to hold a fundraiser “only if he is the candidate.”

“Some of the elite donor class are cutting ties. That’s a big mistake,” Morgan said.

A longtime Democratic fundraiser said it was too early to say whether Biden was doing enough to assuage taxpayers’ concerns, but he was relieved there hadn’t been an “avalanche” of elected officials in Washington calling on Biden to drop out of the race. this week as they returned from their July 4th break.

However, the person added: “I haven’t made any calls or requests (for donations) in the last week and a half… because you need to let some things settle down.”

For its part, the Biden campaign has highlighted a significant increase in recent online financial support and the substantial infrastructure it has already built in battleground states to argue that it will have the resources necessary to compete effectively.

The campaign said it raised $38 million in the four days after the debate, including $30 million in contributions from the grassroots. Additionally, Peter Lowy, a former retail executive, on Monday delivered the maximum contribution of $929,600 to Biden’s joint fundraising committee with the Democratic National Committee, according to the campaign.

In a statement, Lowy said there is “no doubt about the country’s success” during Biden’s term.

“The economy is strong. Unemployment is near historic lows, more than 15 million jobs have been created, the S&P 500 is at an all-time high and inflation is declining,” he said. “Based on all of these facts and based on my interactions with the President, when he announced his plan to run for re-election, I fully supported him. I supported him then, and I support him today.”