Abigail Disney, heir to the Disney family fortune, has threatened to withhold her financial support from the Democratic Party if President Joe Biden doesn’t drop out of the race.
In a statement to CNBC on Thursday, Disney said she will halt her contributions to Democrats “unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket.” A longtime donor to liberal causes, Disney said the stakes are “far too high” for Biden to continue running.
“If Biden does not step down the Democrats will lose. Of that I am absolutely certain. The consequences for the loss will be genuinely dire,” she said.
Disney called for Vice President Kamala Harris to take over as the Democratic nominee:
If Democrats would tolerate any of her perceived shortcomings even one tenth as much as they have tolerated Biden’s (and let’s not kid ourselves about where race and gender figure in that inequity) and if Democrats can find a way to stop quibbling and rally around her, we can win this election by a lot.
Disney joins a chorus of major Democratic Party donors who have called for Biden to step down from the ticket, as his campaign scrambles to contain the fallout from his underwhelming debate performance. On Wednesday, Reed Hastings, the Netflix co-founder who has donated more than $20 million to Democrats in recent years, urged Biden to step down. Moriah Fund President Gideon Stein also told CNBC that he is withholding $3.5 million that was meant for groups tied to the presidential election.
“Virtually every major donor I’ve talked to believes that we need a new candidate in order to defeat Donald Trump,” Stein said.
And on Friday, more than 150 prominent donors, activists and business executives sent a private letter to the White House to urge Biden to withdraw.
Megadonors with access to politicians can put pressure on them in private, but that some are taking their concerns about Biden public speaks to a growing belief that he is no longer strong enough as a candidate to go up against Donald Trump. A public no-confidence vote in Biden from donors also plays into fears among Democrats that the president’s insistence on running could cost the party in down-ballot races.
