Major Democratic donors and activists say Joe Biden is close to leaving office

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Democratic big donors believe Joe Biden is close to dropping out of the White House race after he threatened to stop funding his campaign and party leaders said his candidacy was no longer viable.

Donors from Wall Street to Hollywood have applied renewed pressure in the past three days on party leaders including Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries and Nancy Pelosi to convince Biden to back down.

One major donor close to Schumer said he has spoken to people close to the Senate majority leader in recent days and “I think it’s going to be over soon.”

“The pressure is insurmountable,” said a senior Democratic official in Washington, predicting Biden would step down “by Monday,” though a source close to the party leadership said he could step down sooner.

“Biden got the message that he’s not going to raise any more money,” said a Wall Street fundraiser whose role is to raise money from other donors. “Congressmen are getting more aggressive… Biden’s not going to be able to stand it.”

The movement has gained momentum in recent days after a series of damaging split-screen scenes played out on national television showing Republicans rallying around Donald Trump following a near-assassination attempt on his presidency and Biden ignoring calls from his party to resign and struggling on Thursday to board the presidential plane, Air Force One, after testing positive for COVID-19.

“Everybody is looking at the numbers, they’re looking at the polls, and they’re concerned,” said the person who has consulted with business leaders, donors and Democratic officials, including Jeffries.

Trump’s national lead over Biden has widened since the shooting, giving the former president a five-point lead, according to a new CBS-YouGov poll. Biden has fallen further behind in most other polls conducted since his disastrous debate loss against Trump last month.

“You simply can’t lead a major party candidate if nearly the entire congressional caucus, the majority of your donors and the majority of your constituents believe you should step down, especially when the problems aren’t and aren’t going to get better,” said one senior Democratic official in Washington.

The movement to remove Biden as the Democratic nominee is gaining momentum after appearing to lose steam following his meeting with other NATO leaders in Washington last week, according to several donors.

“I think this is already happening and it’s pretty much irreversible,” said Mohsin Meghji, a Democratic donor and president of the redistricting consulting firm M3 Partners.

“It’s coming back,” said a tech industry donor who recently stopped giving to Biden and is now supporting Democratic House and Senate candidates.

Other donors, fundraisers and activists who spoke to Biden’s aides also said they believe the pressure on the president to end the campaign has become too strong to resist.

“They have a wall coming up, and I don’t think he can keep it up,” the veteran Democrat said. “Even people who really believe in Biden have to understand that. Not a single person I’ve spoken to since the debate believes he can win.”

Democratic fundraisers on the West Coast who staunchly opposed efforts to oust Biden last week said Thursday they believe another candidate has a better chance of beating Trump.

“If this goes the right way, it could be the biggest thing that keeps Trump out of the White House.”

The tech donor said he was one of about 20 major Democratic donors who received messages from party officials on Thursday urging them to go public with renewed calls for Biden to resign.

The message, seen by the Financial Times, said “today is the day” to force Biden to drop out of the race.

George Kroop, a Boston real estate investor and major Democratic donor who recently voiced his opposition to Biden’s reelection, said he doesn’t think Biden can hold out. “There’s a lot of private pressure from key Democratic politicians, activists and donors,” he said.

At a press conference in Milwaukee on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention on Thursday, Biden campaign spokesman Quentin Fulks said Biden “remains in this race. … The president remains in this race.”

John Lawrence, chief of staff to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said threats from party donors could be counterproductive in encouraging Biden to step down.

“I know there are calls from them for the president to resign. I would advise these groups to keep this issue within the family,” Lawrence said.

Additional reporting by Andrew Edgecliffe Johnson in New York