Billionaire and philanthropist Rick Caruso is one of President Joe Biden’s biggest donors, but now, he has joined the growing number of people calling on Biden to step aside.
Caruso ran for Mayor of Los Angeles in 2022 and would have been a far better alternative to current Mayor Karen Bass; however, he is now funding Democrat campaigns to ensure they win back the House and keep the Senate majority. He was also fueling Biden’s campaign, as he co-hosted a multimillion-dollar fundraiser in December, but now says he will pause his efforts to reelect Biden until he can get more clarity.
He’s not the only one, which should raise major alarms in Biden headquarters. Democrat donor Whitney Tilson is also off the Biden train but says his objective of “stopping Trump!” has not changed. He said, in part:
Mark my words: within a matter of days, this debate will all be moot. As soon as Congress reconvenes tomorrow, Democrats will reach an overwhelming consensus that our President, as much as we love and admire him, needs to step down immediately. To effect this, Democratic Congressional leaders will go to Biden and tell him that a majority of both House and Senate Democrats have agreed to sign a public letter calling on him to step down. To avoid this public rupture within the party and the utter humiliation that would accompany it, he can step down – which he will do.
It’s clear that these major Democrat donors don’t believe Biden can defeat Trump in November, but if their alternative is not Vice President Kamala Harris, raising money will be tougher due to another person entering the race this late into the election cycle and transferring the funds that the Biden campaign has received thus far will be far easier if Harris is the one who replaces Biden.
According to Bradley Smith, professor at Capital University Law School in Ohio, if Biden stepped aside and Harris did not become the nominee, the Biden campaign could only transfer two thousand dollars of the money to the new candidate, which would obviously be a big problem, the later it gets in the election cycle.
The Democrat infighting over whether Biden should remain the nominee is benefiting Trump the most at the moment. It remains to be seen if the first lady, Jill Biden, allows her husband to drop out of the race, but it seems like she’s the one most opposed to him dropping out. She seems to care more about holding onto power than her husband’s health.
The next several weeks leading up to the Democrat National Convention will be the most intriguing weeks in terms of Biden’s future.
