The letter was written by the Leadership Now Project, a group founded in 2018 in response to growing concerns about threats to democratic norms. It was shared with several White House advisers, said a person familiar with the project, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private communication.
Signatories include Christy Walton, the billionaire daughter-in-law of Walmart founder, retired NFL commissioner Paul J. Tagliabue, billionaire investor Mike Novogratz, former Google executive Ning Mosberger-Tang, Warburg Pincus CEO Harsha Marti, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, New York University professor and podcaster Scott Galloway, Weyco Group CEO Tom Florsheim, former Army Secretary Louis Caldera and hedge fund investor Kevin Brennan of Bridgewater Associates. Also signing was Vicky Hausman, CEO of Forward Majority, a group that supports Democrats in state legislative races.
Daniella Ballou-Aares, executive director of the Leadership Now Project, who worked in the Obama administration, declined to comment on the letter Friday. The group had already released an unsigned statement Wednesday calling on Biden to step down.
“Our main concern is the risk that the former president [Donald] “Trump is a danger to the economy, to national security and to the rule of law,” Ballou-Aares said during an appearance on CNN Thursday. “We are also in contact with members of the House and Senate to express our concerns.”
She said that if Biden remains the candidate, she expects everyone in the group to continue to support him against Trump. She also said that Biden now has a much better chance of losing than winning if he remains the candidate.
The White House referred a request for comment to the Biden campaign, which responded with a statement about the president’s accomplishments and Trump’s unfitness for office.
“With economists warning that Trump will increase inflation and send us into a recession, while President Biden’s agenda will continue to cut costs and boost job growth, the choice in this election for anyone who wants America to succeed couldn’t be clearer,” Biden campaign spokesman Charles Lutvak said.
The letter delivered by the group on Friday salutes Biden’s decades of public service.
“As members of the Leadership Now Project and like-minded business and civil society leaders committed to protecting American democracy, we have been vocal about the threats posed by a second term for Donald Trump. The risks to America are significant: global and domestic instability, abandonment of our allies, crony capitalism, political retaliation, and further erosion of the rights of women and other groups,” the letter reads.
“At this crucial moment for our nation, it is time to solidify your legacy by passing the torch, just as George Washington did,” the letter added.
