Donors Freeze Contributions Worth $90 Million As Joe Biden Does Not Quit White House Race: Report

The largest pro-Biden political action committee (PAC), Future Forward, was informed that pledges worth roughly $90 million are now on hold if US President Joe Biden remains ‘atop the ticket’, a report by the New York Times said.

The report said that the action by Democratic donors to hold back campaign contributions pledged to Future Forward is an example of the fallout from Biden’s poor debate performance at the end of June against contender and predecessor Donald Trump.

An official of Future Forward told the US-based newspaper contributors who have paused donations to return once uncertainty about who would be atop the ticket was resolved.

The report of the cash freeze comes as some advisers to US President Biden are mulling how to convince the octogenarian world leader to exit the race.

Biden’s campaign has already started to test Vice President Kamala Harris in head-to-head surveys of voters against former President Donald J. Trump, the report by the US-based newspaper said.

The New York Times said that the number of Democrats calling Biden to step aside continues to grow.

The report also said that major donors are questioning if Biden will be able to win in November.

Biden, however, has dug in his heels.

“I believe I’m the best qualified to govern. And I think I’m the best qualified to win,” US President Joe Biden said during a news conference.

In the two weeks since his debate debacle, Biden and his team have been on a relentless sprint to convince fretting lawmakers, nervous donors and a skeptical electorate that at the age of 81, he is still capable of being president.

But a spate of travel to battleground states, interviews with journalists and a rare solo news conference have done little to tamp down the angst within the party about Biden’s candidacy and his prospects against Donald Trump in November.

So far, one Democratic senator and 16 House Democrats have publicly called on Biden to step aside, with the latest statements — from Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, California Rep. Scott Peters and Illinois Rep. Eric Sorensen — coming as the president’s highly anticipated news conference ended Thursday night. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has indicated Biden still has a decision to make on whether to run, even though the president has made it clear he remains in the race.