Devastating blow for Biden: Famous billionaire, one of the Democrats’ most generous donors, calls on the 81-year-old president to drop out of the race

• 63-year-old Reed Hastings calls on Biden to resign after his disastrous debate
• Hastings filled the party coffers with $20 million during the Trump era
• He is also closely associated with Gavin Newsom, who is seen by many as a replacement

The billionaire co-founder of Netflix and one of the Democrats’ most generous donors has called on Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential campaign.

Reed Hastings, 63, is calling on Biden to resign after his disastrous performance at the debate against Donald Trump last week.

“Biden must resign to give a vigorous Democratic leader the opportunity to defeat Trump and ensure our security and prosperity,” Hastings told the New York Times on Wednesday.

Hastings, along with his wife Patty Qullin, filled the party’s coffers with over $20 million during the Trump era.

They have also specifically supported Biden in the past, donating $1.5 million to the 2020 campaign and over $100,000 last summer.

Hastings was part of the Biden campaign’s outreach effort in the technology industry, which also included LinkedIn co-founder Reed Hastings, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and former Yahoo executive Marissa Mayer.

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In the days following the debate, Biden’s donors agreed on three different strategies, the only one of which was that Biden would drop out of the race immediately. These were formulated by people who had little influence on the campaign.

Hastings is now Biden and the Democratic Party’s largest donor to date and is calling on him to resign.

It is also noteworthy that he is close to California Governor Gavin Newsom – considered by some as a possible successor to Biden – and is providing him with three million dollars for his 2021 recall campaign.

Ari Emanuel, a major Hollywood super-agent and Democratic supporter whose brother Rahm is a former White House chief of staff and now Biden’s ambassador to Japan, also sharply criticized on Wednesday.

“I’ve talked to a number of major donors, and they’re funneling all their money to Congress and the Senate,” Emanuel said at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Emanuel, the inspiration for the character Ari Gold in “Entourage,” is also the brother of Rahm Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago who now serves as Biden’s ambassador to Japan.

“He told us a bunch of nonsense and I’m really angry. We should all be really angry,” Emanuel added.

Rahm Emanuel was also once Barack Obama’s chief of staff when Biden was vice president.

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A second incumbent Democrat has called on President Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race, dealing another blow to the campaign as more defectors mount a push against him.

Raúl Grijalva, a 76-year-old Democrat from Arizona, is urging Biden not to run for re-election, the New York Times reported Wednesday, the second incumbent Democrat to call for the president to step down.

Two other Democrats in the House of Representatives have openly stated that they believe former President Donald Trump will defeat Biden – and that lack of confidence is sure to be a topic of conversation among party leaders scheduled for tonight.

“If he is the candidate, I will support him, but I think this is an opportunity to look elsewhere,” Grijalva said.

“He has to take responsibility for keeping that seat – and part of that responsibility is getting out of this race.”

The first incumbent Democrat to call on Joe Biden to withdraw from the election says party leadership did not try to silence him before his public appearance.

Lloyd Doggett, a 77-year-old Democratic congressman from Texas, issued a statement on Tuesday calling on Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race, saying otherwise Donald Trump will win the White House.

He was the first incumbent Democrat to call on Biden to withdraw.

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After turning against the leading Democrat, the Texan, who has been in office since 1995, broke his silence and told NPR that party leadership did not stop him from voicing his concerns publicly.

“I’m not a vulnerable member in this election,” Doggett said. “So I can step forward and talk about things that I think are so important to our country in a way that others may not.”

“But I certainly have not seen any attempt at discouragement from the party leadership,” he added, suggesting that leading Democrats might even approve of Biden’s ouster.

“I think the concerns I’m raising are widespread,” Doggett continued. “I wish this had been resolved sooner.”

The Democrat said he did not comment earlier on Biden’s withdrawal because he was concerned about how Donald Trump might capitalize on such a restructuring of the party.

After the Texas Democrat released his statement on Tuesday calling on Biden to resign from office, two other Democrats in the House of Representatives spoke out against the president in similar terms.

Although they have not explicitly called on Biden to withdraw, Representatives Jared Golden of Maine and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington said Tuesday they are convinced that Donald Trump will beat Joe Biden in November.

In addition, reports suggest that a group of 25 Democratic lawmakers concerned about their own election are considering calling on Biden to withdraw his candidacy.

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Whether Biden continues his candidacy for the presidency in 2024 after his sluggish performance in the debate against Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is largely his decision, Democrats and political strategists said.

Doggett compared the difficult decision he believes Biden must make for the good of the nation to one made by another incumbent Democratic president decades ago.

“I represent the heart of a congressional district that Lyndon Johnson once represented,” the Texan said in a statement on Tuesday. “Under very different circumstances, he made the painful decision to retire.”

“President Biden should do the same,” he continued. “While much of his work has been transformative, he has promised to create a transition.”

Lyndon B. Johnson withdrew from the race in 1968 because the increasing losses in the Vietnam War had made him extremely unpopular.

Biden’s support potential is declining rapidly after his disastrous performance in Thursday’s debate.

A defiant Biden vowed on Wednesday to continue running for re-election, although senior advisers said they believe he may have only days left to show he is up to the challenge before fear boils over in the party.

“Let me say this as clearly and as simply and as directly as possible: I am running … nobody is pushing me out,” Biden said in a conference call with members of his re-election campaign team.

“I’m not leaving. I’m here to the end and we’re going to win.”

But despite his efforts to salvage his flagging re-election bid, Biden faced serious and growing signs that support for him on Capitol Hill and among other allies was rapidly eroding, including impromptu appearances with campaign aides, private conversations with senior politicians, a whirlwind weekend trip and an interview on US television.