Top aides to Joe Biden “aggressively” warned Democratic donors last summer that forcing the president out of the 2024 election would result in the party making the “mistake” of running Kamala Harris against Donald Trump, according to a new book. The account by journalists Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, titled ‘Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House’, describes how Biden’s inner circle pushed back against calls for his withdrawal.
The authors quote one donor who received an electronic message summing up the aides’ sentiments: “They were aggressively saying that we would wind up with the vice-president and that would be a mistake.” The warnings came amid a crisis over Biden’s age and fitness, triggered by his disastrous debate performance on 27 June. Aides accused donors of promoting their own agendas and threatened that an open convention would only succeed in nominating Harris, despite her poor polling.
Donors ultimately cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, and Biden dropped out on 21 July. Harris became the nominee, overcoming opposition from figures including Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi. The book details how Harris “pined” for Obama’s endorsement, which he eventually gave after realising his own position was under threat. Jim Clyburn, the veteran South Carolina congressman, helped secure her nomination.
