Abigail Disney, heir to the Walt Disney family fortune, has said that she plans to withhold donations to the Democratic Party unless President Joe Biden drops out of the presidential election.
In a statement to CNBC that was published Thursday, Disney, 64, granddaughter of The Walt Disney Company co-founder Roy O. Disney, said that her decision was made out of “realism, not disrespect.” As CNBC reports, Disney has contributed to members of the Democratic Party for years.
“I intend to stop any contributions to the party unless and until they replace Biden at the top of the ticket,” read the statement, per CNBC’s report. “This is realism, not disrespect. Biden is a good man and has served his country admirably, but the stakes are far too high.”
“If Biden does not step down the Democrats will lose,” she added. “Of that I am absolutely certain. The consequences for the loss will be genuinely dire.”
Newsweek reached out to Disney’s office and the Democratic Party’s press team on Thursday for further comment.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Disney’s statement follows a week of uncertainty around Biden’s reelection chances after a rocky first-debate performance. The president, however, has been adamant that he is staying in the race, despite some members of his party calling on him to step aside.
According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, Disney’s last political contribution was $500 to the Democratic-aligned fundraising platform, ActBlue, in May. In April, the filmmaker made a $50,000 donation to the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, which, according to CNBC, has given over $35,000 to Democrats running for Congress.
Biden has been resistant to calls for him to step aside. Several names have been floated as a potential replacement for the president, including Vice President Kamala Harris, who has been steadfast in her support for Biden’s reelection campaign.
Polling has showed that Harris has the next best shot in taking on former President Donald Trump in November, although Biden has consistently polled higher than any other Democrat when paired against Trump in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup.
Disney told CNBC, “We have an excellent vice president. If Democrats would tolerate any of her perceived shortcomings even one tenth as much as they have tolerated Biden’s (and let’s not kid ourselves about where race and gender figure in that inequity) and if Democrats can find a way to stop quibbling and rally around her, we can win this election by a lot.”
Other major Democratic donors have also spoken out since Biden’s debate performance. Attorney George Conway, who previously donated $929,600 to the Biden Victory Fund, said on X, formerly Twitter, earlier this week that both Biden and Trump should “retire” from the political field.
Air Emanuel, a Democratic megadonor and Hollywood agent, also insinuated last week that more donors would begin to pull out of the race if Biden remained locked in.
“The lifeblood to a campaign in politics, the lifeblood is money,” Emanuel said at the Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival on Friday. “And maybe the only way this gets—with smart lawyers looking at it—is if the money starts drying up. And I’ve talked—I mean, I’m assuming all of you’ve gotten a lot of calls. I’ve gotten a lot of calls. We’ve all sat there.”
“But if this is, as Biden says, the fight for our democracy … man, he gave us a bunch of malarkey, and I’m really pissed. We all should be really pissed,” Emanuel added.
Biden and his campaign has maintained that the president is more than healthy enough to serve another four years. On Wednesday, the president told supporters in a campaign email that while the “past few days have been tough … let me say this as clearly and simply as I can: I’m running.”
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.