Major Democratic donors abandon Biden after debate criticism

Shafaq News/ Several Democratic donors withdrew their support for US President Joe Biden as he continued to receive criticism regarding his performance in the first presidential debate between him and Republican former President Donald Trump.

George Conway, an attorney who previously donated $929,600 to the Biden Victory Fund, the maximum amount permissible, said both Biden and Trump should retire.

While speaking at the Aspen Institute's Ideas Festival on Friday, Ari Emanuel, a Democratic megadonor and Hollywood agent, suggested more donors would turn against the candidate.

"The lifeblood of a campaign in politics is money. I'm pissed, we all should be really pissed," Emanuel said.

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin—who gave more than $1.5 million to Biden during his 2020 presidential race—also spoke out against the president, the New York Times reported.

"Biden needs to step aside to allow a vigorous Democratic leader to beat Trump and keep us safe and prosperous," Hastings said in an email to the Times.

Speaking to Newsweek, Christopher Phelps, a professor of modern American history at the University of Nottingham in the UK, said some donors may move away from Biden if his "poll numbers fall off a cliff."

"There are signs that the big-money donors are really worried, and if they feel gaslighted by a campaign that is pretending Biden is fine—there's no problem, only "bedwetters" are nervous—then they may feel insulted and patronized and decide to stop giving," he added.

Biden must do more to calm Democratic "panic" over his disastrous performance in his debate with former President Donald Trump, on the road to the race to the White House.

Senior figures in the Democratic Party are now demanding more details about the president's health and mental state, with concern developing into a "genuine threat" to his grip on the Democratic nomination.

Experts' analyses of Biden's political future vary. Some of them believe that the president will continue his election campaign.

However, others explain the Democratic anger over the disappointing debate as a reason for removing Biden aside and putting forward new names that would compete worthy of a fierce opponent like Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, US President Joe Biden addressed his debate night performance in an interview with a local radio station in Wisconsin, saying he "made a mistake."

CNN talked to more than two dozen current and former Democratic officials, donors, and longtime Biden allies. Many of them say they have already made up their minds that the president should quit his campaign, a decision some of them think he needs to announce this week.

ABC News said it will move an interview between the anchor and President Joe Biden to Friday evening rather than waiting until Sunday morning as previously planned, a sign of the extreme interest in seeing the Commander-in-Chief address issues of physical and mental fitness in the wake of a poor debate performance against former President Donald Trump last week.