Ron Klain says 'big-money donors' can't force Biden out of race
Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain on Sunday shrugged off the prospect of President Biden losing the support of "big-money donors," arguing they will not push the president out of the White House race following last week's bad debate performance.
Klain, who served as Biden's top adviser from the beginning of his presidency in 2021 through January of 2023, told The New York Times it was 100 percent certain Biden would stay in the race.
"He is the choice of the Democratic voters,” Klain reportedly said. “We are seeing record levels of support from grass-roots donors. We had a bad debate night. But you win campaigns by fighting — not quitting — in the face of adversity.”
Klain, who ran the president's debate preparations last week, pointed to a primary debate in 2019 that he claimed went poorly, but did not stop Biden's election to the White House.
“Big-money donors don’t get to dictate the nominee of the Democratic Party," Klain told The Times.
Biden is facing calls from some within the Democratic party to step aside and allow a different candidate to take his place as the party's nominee. No national officials, however, have joined these calls yet.
His debate performance appeared to raise alarm bells for Democratic donors across New York, Southern California and Silicon Valley, who privately voiced concerns over the viability of Biden's reelection, The Associated Press reported.
The donors, through text message chains and private conversations, discussed a short list of potential replacements, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Vice President Kamala Harris, the news wire added.
Two days after the debate, Biden attempted to appeal to donors at a weekend fundraiser in New Jersey.
“I didn’t have a great night, but I’m going to be fighting harder," Biden told attendees at the home of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Saturday. "“Donald Trump is a genuine threat to the nation."
Biden has already won the primary and thus cannot be replaced at the convention, unless he agrees to step aside.
Some of Biden's family members are pushing him to stay in the race, including his son, Hunter Biden, the Times reported, citing one person informed about discussions among the family at Camp David this weekend.
The White House and Biden say he has no intention of dropping out of the race.