Pressure mounts: Big Democratic funders will stop donating money until Biden withdraws

Various billionaire donors announced that they will no longer donate to the Democratic Party until President Joe Biden decides to step aside after his disastrous performance in the debate last week before Donald Trump.

A report from the The New York Times reviewed that, after several days of behind-the-scenes complaints and a withdrawal announcement that never came, many millionaire Democratic donors are attempting to take matters into their own hands threatening to curb donations with less than five months to go before the general election.

"Wielding their fortunes as both carrot and stick, donors have undertaken a number of initiatives to pressure Mr. Biden to step down from the top of the ticket and help lay the groundwork for an alternate candidate," the NYT reported, citing the billionaire donors who will stop writing checks.

One of them is Gideon Stein, a Democratic donor and operator who is well connected in the upper echelons of the party.

Stein said his family will be withholding $3.5 million in planned donations to nonprofits and political organizations active in the presidential race until Biden steps out of the race for good. The billionaire, according to the NYT, claimed that virtually every major donor he spoke to believes the clearest route to beating Trump is with a new candidacy.

One of the most high-profile donors who will stop writing checks is Abigail E. Disney, a filmmaker heiress to the Disney fortune, who claimed in an email that Biden's campaign and all committees backing him "will not receive another dime from me until they bite the bullet and replace Biden at the top of the ticket."

Disney also stated that "Biden is a good man who has served his country well, but the stakes are far too high to allow timidity to determine our course of action."

In addition to these two big donors, other respectable funders, such as Damon Lindelof, a Hollywood producer who has donated $115,000 to Democrats this election cycle, have made public calls for Democrats to definitively let go of Biden's hand.

In an essay in Deadline, Linfelof urged big donors to organize a "DEMbargo" against Biden and other Democratic candidates until the president resigns.

This situation demonstrates the deep divide right now between big donors and Democratic Party figures, especially President Biden, who is struggling along with his advisers to keep his candidacy afloat in the wake of the Atlanta debate.

Meanwhile, Biden is shrugging off criticism while publicly stating that he will remain in the presidential race. A determination that was not seen in his last public appearance and but one that has not reassured internal critics.

In fact, the NYT reported that, even there are already groups working hard to create a post-Biden reality.

Particularly, a group of fundraisers is looking to raise between $50 million and $100 million for an escrow fund called Next Generation PAC, which will monetarily back Biden's potential replacement candidate.

"If Mr. Biden does not step aside, the money could be used to help down-ballot candidates," the NYT reported, citing people close to the initiative.

The initiative is headed by Mike Novogratz, the cryptocurrency billionaire who backed Dean Phillips in the Democratic primary; his aides; and Hollywood filmmaker Andrew Jarecki, the NYT reported.

The PAC, which as of this Thursday had not yet filed federal paperwork, still does not plan to begin officially until it has started receiving donations.