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Disney heiress and wealthy Democratic donors say they won’t fund party until Biden drops out
President Joe Biden is facing a revolt from some of the wealthy in his own party donorsincluding an heiress of the Disney family fortune, which they say will no longer finance the Democratic Party until Biden drops out of the presidential race after his disastrous debate performance.
Abigail Disneythe granddaughter of Roy O. Disneywho co-founded The Walt Disney Company, said Thursday she plans to withhold donations to the party she has bankrolled for years until Biden drops out. The president has said he has no plans to withdraw from the race, despite calls for him to do so.
“I intend to stop all contributions to the party unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket. That’s realism, not disrespect. Biden is a good man and has served his country admirably, but the stakes are too high,” Abigail Disney said in a lengthy statement to CNBC. “If Biden doesn’t resign, the Democrats will lose. Of that I am absolutely certain. The consequences of losing will be genuinely dire.”
Image: Donald Trump and Joe Biden participate in the first presidential debate politics political political (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The Democratic Party at large has been in a panic since Biden struggled to introduce himself debate against former President Donald Trump last week. Deputy Lloyd DoggettD-Texas, called for Biden to drop out of the race, suggesting his debate performance proved to voters that the president is incapable of standing up to Trump and is unable to overcome his gap in the polls.
A New York Times/Sienna College survey taken after the debate showed Biden trailing Trump by 6 percentage points among likely voters.
Representatives for the Biden campaign did not return requests for comment.
Abigail Disney is a longtime supporter of Democrats. She donated $50,000 to the Jane Fonda Climate PAC in April, according to a Federal Election Commission filing. The PAC has donated $35,000 to Democrats running for congressional seats, according to data from OpenSecrets.
Disney donated $150,000 in 2014 to Planned Parenthood Votes, a PAC affiliated with the health care nonprofit, according to OpenSecrets. That PAC this election cycle has spent more than $400,000 supporting Democrats, including $26,000 to Biden.
Disney has touted Vice President Kamala Harris as a solid alternative to Biden, arguing she would be able to defeat Trump.
“We have a great vice president. If Democrats tolerated any of her perceived shortcomings even a tenth as much as they tolerated Biden’s (and let’s not kid ourselves about where race and gender figure into that inequality), and if Democrats could find a way to stop arguing and unite around her, we could win this election by a landslide,” Disney said.
And she’s not the only one pausing donations until Biden steps down. Gideon Stein, the president of the Moriah Fund, said he had decided to pause $3.5 million in planned donations to nonprofits and political organizations aligned with the presidential race.
“Joe Biden has been a very effective president, but unless he steps aside, my family and I are pausing more than $3 million in planned giving to nonprofits and political organizations aligned with the presidential race, with the exception of some get-out-the-vote work,” Stein said. “Virtually every major donor I’ve spoken to believes we need a new candidate to defeat Donald Trump.”
Karla Jurvetson, a philanthropist and major Democratic donor, hinted as recently as Tuesday on a private donor call that she agrees with the sentiment to pause donations until Biden resigns and may eventually make such a move, according to a person familiar with her comments. The person was granted anonymity to speak freely about a private conversation.
A spokesman for Jurvetson did not return repeated requests for comment.
Jurvetson is among the top 50 donors nationwide this cycle, giving more than $5 million to Democrats, according to Open Secrets. She has donated more than $200,000 to the Biden Victory Fund this cycle, according to FEC records.
Jurvetson donated more than $30 million to Democrats in 2020, according to the data.
This article was originally published in NBCNews.com