According to reports, the Biden campaign is struggling to raise donations following the disastrous performance in the debate between President Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Donations from major donors alone could fall by more than half this month, and giving is down overall. NBC News.
“It’s already a dire situation,” a source close to the re-election campaign told the outlet about the Biden campaign’s fundraising situation.
“The flow of money has completely stopped,” said another person close to the campaign.
The Biden campaign initially touted raising $14 million on the day of the debate and the morning after the June 27 face-off between the 81-year-old president and Trump, noting that the period between 11 p.m. and midnight after the debate was Biden’s best fundraising hour since he announced his reelection bid last April.
The post-debate fundraising opportunity quickly evaporated, with one source telling NBC News that donors had a “negative” impression after a recent fundraising call with the president.
“The call sounded very unnatural to people. I don’t think they believed it,” the source said.
In addition to fundraising difficulties, there is also uncertainty about whether Biden will continue his reelection campaign as he faces calls to end his reelection effort.
What you need to know about the impact of President Biden’s debate performance:
“You can’t reach out to somebody because they might say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know, he has dementia,'” one of Biden’s fundraising managers told the outlet.
Reports about the campaign’s fundraising woes came just one day before the “two-week grace period” that donors reportedly gave the president following his poor performance in the presidential debates.
Donors expected Biden’s approval ratings to fall after the debate, but a further drop in two weeks would be troubling and unpalatable to donors, a source familiar with conference calls with major donors told The Washington Post earlier this month.
Oscar-winning actor George Clooney, who helped raise about $30 million for the president about a month ago, called on Biden to end his reelection campaign in a New York Times op-ed published Wednesday, arguing that the octogenarian incumbent president “cannot win” against Trump.
The Biden campaign did not respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment.
A campaign spokesman told NBC News that reports of a decline in fundraising are “not accurate.”
