‘Me? No way,’ one donor and former administration official told NBC about donating to Biden’s library
Joe Biden is having trouble finding funding for his presidential library, with even longtime donors and bundlers hesitant to chip in, according to a Friday report.
“Most of the more than half a dozen people who were once major Biden donors or bundlers who spoke with NBC News said they harbored no ill will toward Biden himself but either wouldn’t give to the library or would give only a token amount,” NBC reported. Some said they had had personal interactions with the ailing former president’s inner circle “so distasteful they believed it would be a barrier to ever raising significant funds” for Biden. Others say are saving their financial firepower for the party’s future needs.
“Me? No way,” a Biden bundler and former administration official said when asked about a potential donation. Major Democratic donor Susie Buell told NBC that she is “not inclined to give to libraries,” while another donor said, “I’d like him to have some nice library. I just don’t see that’s where I’m going to spend my money.”
John Morgan, a “longtime Biden devotee” who raised nearly $1 million for the former president’s 2024 campaign, sounded bitter about the idea of donating again, saying he wants “an $800,000 refund,” as the funds he raised ended up going to Kamala Harris.
Biden “faces residual anger from the party over his decision to seek a second term despite health issues,” NBC noted. The network reported back in March that Biden’s attempt to reinsert himself in party politics “seems to have fallen flat.” Donors have also long complained about limited access to Biden while he was in office, saying that the campaign repeatedly asked them for donations but that they couldn’t even reach Biden by phone.
Only later, NBC reported, did contributors “find out he was showing signs of mental decline.”
The Biden team is aiming to raise between $200 million and $300 million for his presidential library, an individual familiar with the plans told NBC. That figure is far below the roughly $500 million raised for George W. Bush’s library and the $850 million for Barack Obama’s.
While the chairman of the Biden presidential library’s board remains confident that enough donors will ultimately fund the project, others are far less optimistic.
“I don’t think ‘hill’ is the proper term,” a prominent donor with close ties to Biden told NBC. “It’s going to be much steeper than that.”
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