By Our Reporter
“I intend to stop any contributions to the party unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket. This is realism, not disrespect. Biden is a good man and has served his country admirably, but the stakes are far too high,” Abigail Disney said in a lengthy statement to CNBC. “If Biden does not step down the Democrats will lose. Of that I am absolutely certain. The consequences for the loss will be genuinely dire”, Abigail said.
Disney pointed to Vice President Kamala Harris as a solid alternative to Biden, arguing she’d be able to defeat Trump.
“We have an excellent vice president. If Democrats would tolerate any of her perceived shortcomings even one tenth as much as they have tolerated Biden’s (and let’s not kid ourselves about where race and gender figure in that inequity) and if Democrats can find a way to stop quibbling and rally around her, we can win this election by a lot,” Disney said.
And she’s not the only one pausing gifts until Biden steps down. Gideon Stein, the president of the Moriah Fund, said he’s decided to pause planned donations of $3.5 million, earmarked for nonprofits and political organizations aligned with the presidential race.
“Joe Biden has been a very effective president, but unless he steps aside my family and I are pausing on more than $3 million in planned donations to nonprofits and political organizations aligned with the presidential race, with the exception of some down ballot work,” Stein said. “Virtually every major donor I’ve talked to believes that we need a new candidate in order to defeat Donald Trump.”
Karla Jurvetson, a philanthropist and major Democratic donor, hinted as recently as Tuesday in a private donor call that she agrees with the sentiment on pausing donations until Biden steps down and could end up making such move, according to a person familiar with her remarks. The person was granted anonymity in order to speak freely about a private conversation.
A spokesman for Jurvetson did not return repeated requests for comment, CNBC reports
Jurvetson is among the top 50 donors this cycle across the country, donating over $5 million to Democrats, according to OpenSecrets. She’s given over $200,000 to the Biden Victory Fund this cycle, according to FEC records.
Jurvetson gave over $30 million to Democrats in 2020, according to the data.
This has thrown the Democratic Party at large into a state of panic, even as Biden has reportedly said he would go ahead and contest the election.
Recent polls suggest that president Biden is about 6 percentage points behind Donald Trump, after last presidential debate, leaving the Democrats worried over the president’s capacity to take on Trump and overcome him.
With reports from NBC News