Democratic Party ultradonors are gearing up to try to push President Joe Biden out of his reelection race, trying every angle to get members of Congress to call for Biden's removal.
Their plots are multi-dimensional, reported The New York Times, including calling politicians, dangling contributions or threatening to withhold them, and even donors who are typically media-shy are speaking with reporters about the party establishment.
Other moves include funneling money to a super PAC that has raised $2 million to back vulnerable members of Congress who call for Biden's removal from the ticket, and raising money publicly for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Tom Strickler, a founder of the Hollywood talent agency WME, told the Times that one of his meetings involved Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., saying that he told the senator's team that if it doesn't push for Biden to leave the race, "you are not getting a dime from me."
Strickler said he'd been planning to give each of the seven most vulnerable Democrat Senate candidates the maximum legal amount in August, but now they won't get his money because they still back Biden.
"It's a message that I've encouraged my friends to send as well; If you back Biden, you will lose our support," Strickler said. "Over and out."
However, such threats may not work. Republican donors learned in 2016 and now that there were limits to their powers to keep Donald Trump from running for office, and Democrat megadonors are also seeing now that their powers may be limited, as Biden has raised significant funds from small-dollar donations.
Further, Biden and his campaign team have spoken out against the wealthy "elites" who are trying to force him out of his campaign and the nomination, and major donors are concerned about their efforts backfiring.
In addition, Biden is most likely to be influenced by his family and his close aides. Donors have been debating about who they can reach in Biden's inner circle, but privately many are saying that they're concerned they won't have the power to push him out, despite concerns about his age and health.
Longtime Democrat fundraiser Joe Ravitch, a top Hollywood banker, said that he had been making his donations based on a change at the top of the ticket even before Biden shocked the nation with his performance during his debate with Trump on June 27.
But now, Ravitch said that he can't figure out if anyone has enough influence to remove Biden from the ticket, and said that "donors certainly don't, regardless of what we do."
According to Democrat insiders, most major donors want Biden to step down, but he still does have some big players who want him to stay the course, including LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, investor Alex Soros, and low-profile donor Amy Goldman Fowler, who gives millions of dollars yearly to the Democratic Party.
Other Democrat donors are concerned that if they speak out against Biden publicly, it will weaken him even more if he remains the nominee and runs against Trump.
"Silence is golden," said Haim Saban, a Hollywood magnate who has spent tens of millions of dollars for the Democratic Party.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.