The Biden campaign is celebrating the wins they can get and touting the $33 million in donations they managed to rake in post-debate
A Biden campaign official said that half of the funds raised came from first time donors.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
- The Biden campaign said it raised $33 million after the first presidential debate of the year.
- The campaign said that half of the funds raised came from first time donors.
- The spike in donations provides some relief for Biden who is facing growing calls to step aside.
Supporters of President Joe Biden may have been unnerved by his bad performance at Thursday's presidential debate, but that didn't seem to hinder his campaign's fundraising efforts.
"$33 million raised since the debate, $26 million from grassroots donors," Biden deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty said in an X post on Sunday.
"Half! Of the donations made in this period are from first time donors. The Democrats grassroots is getting on board," he continued.
The spike in donations would certainly be a source of relief for the Biden camp. For comparison, former President Donald Trump's campaign said it raised $8 million the day after the debate.
"Thursday was our best grassroots fundraising day ever, while Friday was the second best," a Biden campaign official told CNN.
Representatives for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.
Biden saw a similar bump in donations after his first presidential debate with Trump in the 2020 election. His campaign said at the time that it had broken its fundraising records when it raised nearly $10 million from 215,000 donors on the day of the debate.
But while the surge in donations will provide Biden with a welcome boost, it certainly isn't the home run the campaign needs right now.
Calls for Biden to be replaced as the presumptive Democratic nominee have grown after his underwhelming performance at last week's debate.
And when it comes to fundraising, Biden's campaign could also be losing its momentum against his GOP rival.
Trump's campaign said it raised $141 million in May, higher than Biden's $85 million in the same month. And in April, Trump raised $76 million to Biden's $51 million.
On Saturday, Biden donor and investor Whitney Tilson said he's reconsidering his support for Biden after Thursday's debate.
"If the man I saw at the debate is the real Joe Biden right now, then it would be a waste of my time and money to support him because he has almost no chance of beating Trump," Tilson said in an X post.