Top Hollywood donors threaten to stop giving to Dems if Biden not replaced as candidate: report
High-profile Hollywood donors said they’ll not be giving any more money to the Democratic Party if President Biden doesn’t end his re-election bid, Variety reported
The Friday story cited several Hollywood insiders who noted that, following Biden’s debate performance on Thursday, major liberal donors have become disillusioned with the former president and want someone else at the top of the ticket.
"It’s just really hard to see how we keep supporting him. He needs to dig deep about whether he can in good conscience be our nominee," Hannah Linkenhoker, an advisor to several of these donors, told the outlet.
The Hollywood honchos’ reported flip on Biden reflects the general shift in Democratic Party supporters and even liberal pundits that occurred following Biden’s highly criticized debate performance against former President Trump on Thursday.
The debate sparked panic among Democratic strategists and commentators, some of whom are now calling for Biden to be replaced as the Democratic presidential nominee.
An anonymous Hollywood donor told the entertainment outlet that in his network, many people are declaring that they’ll be withholding donations unless Biden is moved aside.
"With all the text chains I’m on, people are basically like, ‘If he doesn’t drop out, we’re not giving any more money to Democrats or the Democratic Party.’ It’s like super intense," he said.
Another industry person, who Variety described as being "plugged in at the highest level of Hollywood fundraising," was quoted as saying, "There is a sense that the money dried up last night about 10 minutes into the debate."
"We need a champion who can properly hold Trump accountable and articulate what’s going on and be crisp on this issue above all else," Linkenhoker added, before noting there’s serious doubt among her clients that Biden is this guy.
Up until recently, Biden has received massive support in Hollywood. During the last quarter of 2023, the president received multiple six-figure donations to the Biden Victory Fund. Among these donors, industry titan Steven Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw each donated $929,600. Filmmaker J.J. Abrams gave Biden $500,000 during the same period.
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Celebrities and other Hollywood bigwigs also helped organize and attended a Biden fundraiser in New York City in March that brought the president’s 2024 campaign $25 million in donations in a single night.
Variety report that "all eyes are on Jeffrey Katzenberg," the DreamWorks Pictures co-founder and ex-Disney executive who helped put helped put together the March event, to see what his response is to Biden’s debate performance.
The outlet stated, "Sources close to Katzenberg say he is taking a wait-and-see approach to how Biden’s debate performance plays out in the coming days."
The same goes for media mogul and major Democrat donor Haim Saban, Variety said, though Saban has expressed his disagreement with Biden on other issues in recent weeks, like slamming the administration for its policies regarding Israel’s war with Hamas.
Biden campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler told Variety that there are "no conversations" about Biden being replaced, though he did acknowledge that the president "didn’t have the best night on the debate stage."
"But you’d rather have one bad night than a candidate with a bad vision for where he wants to take the country," he added, contrasting Biden to Trump.
The Biden campaign did not immediately reply to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.