A wealthy Democratic fundraiser and organizer explains why Joe Biden won’t drop out of the 2024 election.
Dmitri Mehlhorn, who organizes wealthy Biden supporters like LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman, made waves last week when he said a “dead” or “comatose” Biden would be better than replacing him on the ticket with Kamala Harris.
Mehlhorn said in an interview Monday that Biden is still determined to run and win in 2024, that polls saying the president is losing are wrong and what motivates him to stay in the race.
According to Mehlhorn, Biden believes his biggest mistake was being talked out of running for president so that Hillary Clinton could be the Democratic Party’s nominee. Many reports suggest Barack Obama was one of them.
“And he’s right. We were all wrong,” Mehlhorn said. “If he had run in 2016, we wouldn’t be here. A lot of people, not so much us this time, but a lot of people made those same arguments to him in 2020 and he stubbornly resisted all of them. And he saved us.”
Dmitri Mehlhorn, a fundraiser and organizer for wealthy Democrats, explains why Joe Biden will not withdraw from the 2024 election. Mehlhorn has previously said that a “dead” or “comatose” Biden would be better than replacing him on the ticket with Kamala Harris.
Mehlhorn, often considered billionaire Hoffman’s right-hand man, has previously said there is no point in trying to get Biden to back out, so he and his donors will continue as they have previously.
He said News from the download site that in 2020 he “refused to listen” to detractors and “the world benefited greatly.”
Mehlhorn then asked: “At this point, who is he going to listen to? I think, fundamentally, he’s going to listen to the voters.”
He added that Biden could only resign if he “fell in the polls” and that has not yet happened.
When interviewer Ryan Grim pointed out that Biden doesn’t seem to believe polls suggesting his approval rating is at 38 percent, Mehlhorn gave a surprising response.
“I actually think he’s right and you’re all wrong,” he said. “There were a lot of things Biden said that I didn’t like, but his answer about the polls — actually, you’re all wrong and Joe is right. The polls are tied, they’re still within the margin of error. That’s what matters at this stage.”
He suggested that a drop of at least five points in the polls sustained over several weeks would be the kind of “drop” that would eliminate Biden.
‘If they’re right, how much should the polls go down? I mean, shouldn’t they go down a lot? Shouldn’t they go down more than two and a half points? Shouldn’t Trump’s odds of winning be more than two to one if they’re so right?’
Biden, according to Mehlhorn, believes his biggest mistake was being talked out of running for president so that Hillary Clinton could be the Democratic Party nominee.
Mehlhorn, often seen as billionaire Reid Hoffman’s (pictured) right-hand man, has previously said there is no point in trying to get Biden to back out, so he and his donors will just push ahead as they have done previously.
Mehlhorn says that ultimately, regardless of age or his claims that he needs to stop working after 8 p.m., Biden, 81, is the best man for the job, even suggesting that he is “working too much.”
“The president has to be able to make tough decisions and communicate them coherently so that everyone understands them. Right? I maintain that Joe Biden is as good or better than anyone else at those two things. And it doesn’t get worse as he gets older.”
He backtracked somewhat from his claim to Fox News last week that undecided voters would prefer a dead Biden to a living Kamala Harris.
“That’s the level of confidence we have: If it’s not Biden, it’s Harris,” Mehlhorn said.
“And I think Harris can make the case. Remember, in 2020, even when she was pushing Biden over Bernie, she was making a lot of arguments about how if it’s Bernie, this is the play, and he could win. If it’s Kamala, she could win. She’s a prosecutor and he’s a criminal. And if she picks the right running mate, that’s fine, too. We’ll go with that. But those are the options and the alternatives.”
Questions remain about Biden’s competence, especially after his first interview since the disastrous June 27 debate did little to calm fears.
Several Democrats had called on Biden to drop out of the race after the debate and reiterated this call after Friday’s ABC interview.
Monday began with the president striking a defiant tone in a letter to congressional Democrats saying he would not abandon his campaign.
Mehlhorn says that ultimately, regardless of age or his claims that he needs to stop working after 8 p.m., Biden, 81, is the best man for the job, even suggesting he is “working too much.”
Mehlhorn backtracked somewhat from his claim to Fox News last week that undecided voters would prefer a dead Biden to a living Kamala Harris.
He then made a surprise call to MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to criticize elites who he said didn’t understand his support among the Democratic base.
He challenged detractors to run against him at the convention.
“I feel very frustrated by the elites. By the way, I’m not talking about you… the party elites,” he said.
“Do you know much more? If any of these guys don’t think I should run for office, let them run against me, let them announce their candidacy for president, let them challenge me at the convention.”
The president also hopes Thursday’s news conference will be an opportunity to show he can still stand up to the rigors and scrutiny of being president.