Democratic donors divided on what comes next, buying Biden more time

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has benefited from frustrated Democratic donors and elected officials failing to rally behind a single plan for replacing him, but that may be changing.

Biden, who stumbled badly last week in a debate with former President Donald Trump and has struggled to clean up the mess, remains popular among fellow Democrats. But many of the party’s top donors are worried that the 81-year-old president’s frailties will frighten enough voters to ensure that Trump wins the White House in November.

Some Democrats would like Biden to stay in the race. Others want him to step aside so that Vice President Kamala Harris can become the party’s nominee. A third set believes the nominee should be someone else — or at least that there should be competition for the spot.

That fundamental disagreement has contributed to paralysis within the party, buying Biden more time to try to reassure his allies. But he hasn’t been able to do that yet, and the public and private calls for him to vacate the nomination, regardless of who would replace him, have been growing in number and intensity.

“Donors are done,” said one Democratic lawmaker who believes Biden should step aside but has so far avoided saying so publicly.

Another donor said that Biden’s performance in a one-on-one interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that is due to be aired Friday night would be a major test to see if the president can hold back a deluge of defections — even though the donor already has reached a conclusion.

“He has to get out of the race,” the donor said. “If he keeps dragging this out, they’ll be angry at him.”

The Biden campaign, however, noted that it also had some donors give the maximum contribution amount since the debate.

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