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How Hollywood titans are turning against Biden as big donors say they have 'immense respect' for him but the risks are now too high piling even more pressure on ailing President
Typically reliable Democratic Party donors in Hollywood are withholding their cash until President Joe Biden is replaced at the top of the ticket in the wake of the aging commander-in-chief's disastrous debate performance last month.
Biden, 81, regularly lost focus and trailed off mid-sentence when faced with a typically robust performance from his Republican challenger, ex-president Donald Trump during their showdown on CNN.
Last week, Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, who has donated $100,000 already this election cycle, and Disney heiress Abigail Disney, who has earmarked donations of up to $635,000, made headlines as they were among the first to announces that they were ceasing funding until Biden pulls out.
Now more bigshots in tinsel town are making similar moves. Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof, who has also given $100,000, wrote an op-ed for Deadline in which he made it clear he would no longer fund a Biden-led campaign.
In an email to The Los Angeles Times, Lindelof doubled down saying that despite his 'immense respect' for Biden, the risks posed by another Trump presidency meant the stakes were simply too high.
Abigail Disney, a known liberal philanthropist, has promised to withhold all funding for Biden's campaign
Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof spoke of his respect for Biden in a recent op-ed but maintains the aging Democrat should step aside
Media mogul Barry Diller has said he will no longer support the Democratic Party's presidential push with Biden at the top of the ticket
Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings was among the first billionaires to pull his funding for the Biden campaign in the wake of the CNN debate
'For me, this isn’t about the ability to govern, it’s about the ability to WIN,' he told the newspaper.
Media mogul Barry Diller, contributor of around $150,000 this cycle, also told The Ankler that he wouldn't continue to fund the Biden campaign. Diller, known for his roles at Fox and USA Television, is married to designer Diane Von Furstenberg.
However one key figure, Andy Spahn, who is known for his role in advising Hollywood's wealthiest people how to donate to liberal causes, is urging calm.
'Everyone just needs to take a breath. This will sort itself out soon enough,' he told The LA Times.
Hollywood super-agent Ari Emanuel alluded to this trend last week at an event in Colorado.
Emanuel said that most of his wealthy pals are concentrating on the Senate and Congress when it comes to donations. He went on to blame the Democratic Party for the mess created.
'[Biden] said he was going to run for one term, and he’s doing it to restore democracy. He then runs for a second term — that’s the first bit of malarkey, as he would say. He and his cohorts have told us that he’s [been] healthy for over a year,' Emanuel said, via The Hollywood Reporter.
'I had a father who died at 92, but at 81 I took away his car, and it was a very simple test for me. If you were driving from downtown Beverly Hills to Malibu, would you want Biden to do it at night? Would you want Trump to do it at night?'
'If the answer is neither, you cannot have them running a $27 trillion company called the United States,' he ranted.
Biden has maintained that he will remain in the race despite mounting pressure
In contrast, Trump's campaign continues to raise money hand over fist, reporting a haul of $331 million in the second quarter of 2024.
That number bests the $264 million that Biden’s reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee reported raising over the same period.
Trump’s total includes $111.8 million that the campaign says it raised in June. That sum is less than the $127 million Biden reported raising last month, which includes more than $33 million on the day of the debate and in its aftermath.
But Trump’s campaign reports that it ended the quarter with $284.9 million cash on hand, compared with $240 million reported by Biden.
Meanwhile, the granddaughter to Roy Disney, the co-founder of the Walt Disney Corporation, has often made noise for her liberal politics despite her wealth, which is believed to be around $120 million.
'I intend to stop any contributions to the party unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket. This is realism, not disrespect. Biden is a good man and has served his country admirably, but the stakes are far too high,' she said in a statement.
The 64-year-old Disney's announcement comes just a day after Reed Hastings became one of the first liberal megadonors to turn off the spigot until the president stands aside.
'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 continued.
Disney believes that the 'excellent' Vice President Kamala Harris is more than capable of topping the ticket.
'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,' she said.
Disney's gifts have been generous toward the party during the Trump and Biden eras.
She has donated to Biden-affiliated and Democrat-affiliated PACs over the past decade to the tune of at least $635,000, according to CNBC.
However, a Biden campaign official told DailyMail.com that Disney has not donated to the campaign nor the Democratic National Committee since 2020.
Disney is not alone, as the hits just keep on coming for Biden, who angered Democrat governors at an emergency meeting Wednesday night where he claimed he wanted to stop working past 8pm to preserve his fading energy, per CNN.
A group of wealthy donors are also secretly plotting to start Next Generation PAC, a $50-100 million effort to support a Democrat nominee not named Joe Biden, according to the New York Times.
Next Generation PAC - founded by crypto billionaire Mike Novogratz - will hold its money until Biden's resigns and give to his replacement on the ticket. Should he not get out of the race, they will focus on down-ballot Democrats but not to Biden.
While the committee hasn't filed with the FEC, the Biden campaign has reportedly heard of it and tried to talk its backers into stopping.