Biden
Bashes Influence of Billionaires While Relying on their Money
Former Vice President Joe Biden is bashing the outsize influence
billionaires are having on the race for the 2020 Democrat nomination, despite
his own campaign relying heavily upon their money.
In a fundraising email sent to supporters on Thursday, Biden’s
campaign excoriated two of his Democrat rivals for using their personal
fortunes to underwrite their presidential ambitions. The email, titled “the
billionaires are coming,” took direct aim at Tom Steyer and former New York
City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for spending heavily to “saturate your airwaves
and news feeds.”
In particular, Biden’s campaign lambasted Steyer for using his
fortune to gain access to the Democrat debates, while attacking Bloomberg for
skipping early primaries and spending $100 million in delegate-heavy Super
Tuesday states.
“One billionaire is buying his way onto the Democrat debate
stage, and one is buying his way out of it,” Biden’s campaign wrote, before
proceeding to argue both billionaires were undermining “how democracy is
supposed to work.”
The former vice president’s attack on the influence Steyer and
Bloomberg are having is surprising given the fact his own campaign has relied heavily
on billionaires to underwrite his White House hopes.
A recent report by Forbes indicates Biden has
been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the billionaire donor class since
launching his candidacy. In the last fundraising quarter alone, the former vice
president pulled in contributions from 44 billionaires—the most of any 2020
Democrat. Many of those contributing opted to max out, giving the largest sum
possible for a primary campaign under federal law.
The money rolled in from Silicon Valley titans, Wall Street
elites, and some of the country’s largest real estate tycoons.
Among the donors was Eric Schmidt,
the former CEO of Google who stirred controversy in January 2017 when claiming
President Donald Trump would do “evil things” in office. Schmidt donated $2,800 to
Biden’s campaign in May, less than a week after the former vice president
entered the race. In the past the former Google executive has heavily backed
Democrat candidates up and down the ballot, including House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi (D-CA).
Employees from Google’s parent
company, Alphabet Inc., have donated more than $37,000 to Biden’s campaign to
date, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The hefty
contributions have ensured Alphabet is one of the former vice president’s top
20 contributors. Joining a list that includes another Silicon Valley giant,
Microsoft Corp.
Biden’s support in Silicon Valley
has not been confined to traditional Democrats. Former eBay CEO Meg
Whitman, a one time Republican nominee for governor of California,
donated $2,800 in
September. In 2016, Whitman broke ranks by endorsing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over Trump.
Since that time, the former eBay executive has become a consistent ‘Never Trumper.’
On America’s other coast, the former vice president has elicited
prime backing from Wall Street and the real estate industry.
Topping the list of Biden’s Wall
Street backers is Judy Dimon, the wife of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.
Although her husband, himself, has not donated, Dimon maxed out to Biden in mid-September.
The contribution comes with its own
controversial history. In 2008, then-Sen. Joe Biden supported the Troubled
Asset Relief Program, which granted large financial institutions bailouts to
survive the recession. JPMorgan was one such institution, taking more than $25
billion in taxpayer money—one of largest bailouts
granted to any company under the program.
The bailout came even though
JPMorgan’s mortgage lending practices helped create the housing bubble that,
when it burst, ultimately led the to the recession. In 2013, the bank agreed to
pay a civil fine of $13 billion for its unscrupulous lending practices.
Apart from Dimon,
Biden received maxed out contributions from private equity executives,
like Blackstone President Jonathan Gray. Blackstone recently made a $250 million investment in a startup that helps outsource American jobs overseas.
In total, the former vice president
has filled a significant portion of his campaign account from Wall Street
donors, including nearly a million dollars from the securities and investment sector.
Wall Street’s contributions, however, paled in comparison to the
amount of money real estate tycoons have donated to Biden. In between April and
the end of September, the former vice president garnered more than one million
from real estate interests.
The funds poured in from longtime
allies like Neil Bluhm, a casino and real estate magnate, and George Marcus,
the leader of America’s largest commercial property brokerage firms.
Although Bluhm and Marcus have only
donated $2,800 each, both men have hosted lavish
fundraisers on Biden’s behalf that have raised unknown amounts.
Biden’s reliance on such billionaires is one of the reasons his
campaign has struggled to compete financially with the likes of Sens. Bernie
Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
Although Biden started the race with a strong funding advantage,
thanks to support from high-dollar donors, he ended the most recent fundraising
period well behind his competitors. In between July and the end of September,
Biden only raised $15.2 million. The sum was dwarfed by that raised by Sanders
($25.3 million), Warren ($24.6 million), and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg
($19.1 million).
The former vice president’s
fundraising troubles stem from an inability to make in-roads with small-dollar
donors. Unlike Warren or Sanders, more than 2,900 donors have
already maxed out to
Biden’s campaign.
In fact, top-dollar donors make up a far higher percentage of
Biden’s campaign coffers than those of his competitors. In comparison, only 38
percent of the campaign’s funds to date have come from individuals donating
less than $200. Such a ratio poses a long term issue, especially when top
contributors are prohibited by law from donating again until after the primary.
The disparate support between
billionaires and small donors was seen as a primary motivator for Biden’s
decision to jettison opposing
outside help from Super PACs. Since such groups
can raise and spend unlimited funds, the former vice president’s billionaire
donors are no longer subject to contribution limits when supporting his
campaign.
Biden, though, did not mention any of this in his email to
supporters on Thursday. Instead, the former vice president kept his fire aimed
at Steyer and Bloomberg, while downplaying his own support from the billionaire
donor class.
“Since the day that this campaign launched, we have relied on
grassroots support to power this campaign,” Biden’s team wrote.
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