By President Joe Biden’s campaign announced in an email that it raised $127 million in June, with over $30 million brought in since his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump on Thursday.
Biden’s team noted that the money was raised for Team Biden-Harris, which includes the political entities of the Biden campaign, his joint fundraising committees, the Democratic National Committee and dozens of state parties across the country.
The high fundraising total suggests that those who often contribute smaller amounts of money are sticking with the president, even though wealthy Democratic donors and fundraisers sounded the alarm about the president’s sluggish debate.
The campaign said that “nearly two-thirds [of] June’s raise came from grassroots donors, and of the $38 million raised in the final few days of the month, more than $30 million came from grassroots donations.” The campaign also said its political operation went into the third quarter with $240 million on hand.
Still, the public and private criticism by party officials, including some Democrats in Congress, has not subsided despite Biden’s effort to calm their nerves.
“I think like a lot of people I was pretty horrified,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I. about the debate on Monday in an interview for a local television station.
“I think people want to make sure that this is a campaign that’s ready to go and win, that the president and his team are being candid with us about his condition — that this was a real anomaly and not just the way he is these days,” Whitehouse said.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. said in an interview with MSNBC on Sunday that Biden’s debate performance was a “big problem,” and there are discussions up and down the Democratic Party about what took place on Thursday in Atlanta.
“So this makes it a difficult situation for everybody, but there are very honest and serious and rigorous conversations happening at every level of our party because it is a political party and we have differences in point of view,” said Raskin.
Raskin noted that if Biden announces he will not stand for reelection, the party will be united around someone else.
“One thing I can tell you is that regardless of what President Biden decides, our party is going to be unified, and our party also needs him at the very center of our deliberations and our campaign,” said Raskin. “And so whether he’s the candidate or someone else is the candidate, he is going to be the keynote speaker at our convention. He will be the figure that we rally around to move forward, and beat the forces of authoritarianism and reaction in the country.”
Biden’s team has said the president has no plans to drop out of the race.
