Abigail Disney, heir to the Walt Disney family fortune, said she plans to withhold donations to the Democratic Party unless President Joe Biden withdraws from the presidential race.
In a statement to CNBC published Thursday, Disney, 64, grandson of The Walt Disney Company co-founder Roy O. Disney, said that the decision was made out of “realism, not disrespect.” As CNBC reports, Disney has donated to members of the Democratic Party for years.
“I intend to stop contributing to the party unless and until I replace Biden at the top of the ticket,” read the statement, per CNBC report. “This is realism, not irreverence. Biden is a good man and has served his country well, but the stakes are very high.”
“If Biden doesn’t resign, the Democrats will lose,” he added. “From that I am absolutely sure. The consequences for the loss will be truly terrible.”
Newsweek Disney’s office and the Democratic Party’s press team were reached Thursday for further comment.
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Disney’s statement follows a week of uncertainty about Biden’s re-election chances after a difficult first debate performance. However, the president remained in the race, despite some members of his party calling for him to step aside.
According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, Disney’s last political contribution was $500 to a Democratic-affiliated 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 more than $35,000 to Democrats running for Congress.
Biden has withstood calls for him to step aside. Several names have been floated as potential replacements for the president, including Vice President Kamala Harris, who remains a supporter of Biden’s re-election campaign.
Polls have shown that Harris has the next best shot at taking on former President Donald Trump in November, although Biden consistently polls higher than other Democrats when paired with Trump in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup.
Disney told CNBC, “We have a great vice president. If the Democrats are going to tolerate any of his perceived flaws even a tenth more than they’ve ever tolerated Biden (and let’s not joke about where race and gender are in that disparity) and if the Democrats can find a way to stop quibbling and get around him, we can win this election by a large margin.”
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 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 start dropping out of the race if Biden remained locked up.
“In the life of a political campaign, the life is money,” Emanuel said at the Aspen Institute’s Festival of Ideas on Friday. “And maybe the only way this is going to be – with a smart lawyer looking at it – is if the money starts to dry up. And I’ve been talking—I mean, I’m assuming you’ve all been getting a lot of calls. have been getting a lot of calls.
“But if this is, as Biden said, a fight for our democracy … people, give us a bunch of malarkey, and I’m angry. We should all be very angry,” added Emanuel.
Biden and his campaign maintain that the president is fitter to serve another four years. On Wednesday, the president told supporters in a campaign email that “the last few days have been difficult … let me say it clearly and simply: I’m running.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for a common field.
