The co-chairman of President Biden’s now-disbanded campaign expressed anger at big donors who decided to withhold donations, suggesting they forced Biden to abandon his reelection effort.
After Biden announced Sunday that he would not run for a second term, Biden campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond told CNN that wealthy donors had “created a self-fulfilling prophecy” after Biden’s heavily panned debate performance.
“If you don’t have money, you can’t win. And they were going to blame the candidate. They were going to blame Biden,” he said. “It was a no-win situation for a president who’s accomplished so much.”
Richmond also had a clear message for those who turned their backs on Biden: “Now is the time for donors to step up.”
During an appearance on CNN on Thursday morning, Richmond clarified his statement that no significant donations had been made to the Biden campaign.
“Was I angry at big donors? Of course,” he said.
Top Democratic fundraiser Lindy Lee expressed a similar sentiment before Biden’s announcement, telling Fox News Sunday that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to raise donations for Biden.
AP
“Large fundraising has slowed down. Major donors who had pledged huge six-figure, seven-figure checks have just disappeared, vanished off the face of the earth, retracted their pledges,” Lee said.
Li also said it would be a “catastrophic mistake” and a “political blunder” for Biden to ignore Vice President Kamala Harris if he were to withdraw.
Harris raised $100 million between Sunday afternoon, when Biden ended his reelection effort and endorsed his vice president as his successor as the Democratic presidential nominee, and Monday night, her campaign announced Tuesday morning.
Ricardo B. Braziel/American Statesman/USA Today Network
The Harris campaign also touted the contributions it received from more than 1.1 million donors in the wake of the president’s shocking news, 62% of whom were first-time donors.
The Harris campaign has noted the surge in fundraising, highlighting in an emailed statement Monday afternoon that the amount raised was “the largest 24-hour fundraising raise in the history of a presidential election.”
The one-day fundraising easily eclipsed former President Trump’s campaign coffers of roughly $53 million, and the Republican National Committee released the amount it raised through its online digital fundraising platform in the first 24 hours after Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in a criminal trial in New York City about two months ago.
