When the megadonors said they would stop cutting checks unless Joe Biden dropped out of the race, you knew the impact would be significant. Apparently, other donors caught wind of the chaos and uncertainty that’s now engulfed the Democratic Party as lingering questions about Biden’s mental health dominate the national discussion. With Biden at the top of the ticket, threatening down-ballot races, and the overall circus ensued, people aren’t cutting checks to the president’s re-election campaign, whose fundraising numbers have cratered (via NBC News):
President Joe Biden’s campaign has already suffered a major slowdown in donations and officials are bracing for a seismic fundraising hit, with the fallout from a debate nearly two weeks ago taking a sizable toll on operations, according to four sources close to the re-election effort.
“It’s already disastrous,” one of the sources close to Biden’s re-election said of fundraising.
"The money has absolutely shut off" to the Biden campaign, another source close to Biden's re-election said.
[…]
A Biden campaign spokesperson pushed back on the notion that fundraising was down. "That’s not accurate," spokesperson Lauren Hitt said. "On grassroots fundraising, the first seven days of July were the best start to the month on the campaign — and many of those were first time donors. On the high dollar side, we’ve had folks max out since the debate, as well."
Hitt did not share how many donors have hit the maximum level of giving allowed under federal law since the debate.
One of the people close to the re-election efforts said earlier this week that the campaign believed major donors who have threatened to jump ship after the debate would come around — if only to avoid helping Trump by sitting out this race.
Biden aides had said privately, “If major donors don’t come along, we’ll do it without them.”
[…]
The doubts about Biden go beyond his cognitive abilities. The president’s positive talk on polling, for example, in the ABC interview, sounded "actually quite Trumpian,” the donor said, and has caused donors to question where he is getting his information.
“Donors, they are saying, well, wait a minute, which polls is he looking at? Which polls should we be looking at?” he said.
“It’s a broader, ‘Is the group around the president really in touch with what’s going on?’ Are people deluding themselves? And therefore whatever they’re conveying is sort of a reflection of the bubble?” he said.
Some of Biden’s top fundraisers won’t reach out to their lucrative networks because they’re not convinced Biden will be the nominee heading into the convention, despite the president saying he’s staying in the race, according to one of Biden's bundlers.
What stage of grief is this https://t.co/FCCEabnGsS
— umichvoter 🏳️🌈 (@umichvoter) July 10, 2024
The poll denialism was something that many picked up on, notably that Biden was trailing Trump in key swing states before the debate. The former president’s lead over Biden has only increased since he got dog walked on June 27. Biden’s spin is that Trump didn’t gain, which is absurd. When the incumbent gets demolished like Biden did, the opponent gains, resulting in 2020 Biden supporters fleeing. You’re losing this election, Joe. That’s a fact, and you and your team’s unwillingness to admit that is also why people aren’t keen on donating much more right now.