Mr. Moritz became one of the party’s top contributors to go public with his fears about the president’s candidacy, saying that Mr. Biden had a choice: “vanity or virtue.”
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Michael Moritz, the billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist, said in an email that President Biden could “either condemn the country to dark and cruel times or heed the voice of Father Time.”
Michael Moritz, the billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist and a top Democratic donor, is calling for President Biden to step aside, becoming one of the party’s largest contributors to go public with his concerns about the president’s candidacy.
“Sadly, President Biden has a choice — vanity or virtue,” Mr. Moritz said in an email on Friday to The New York Times. “He can either condemn the country to dark and cruel times or heed the voice of Father Time. The clock has run out.”
Mr. Moritz has given $7.8 million to pro-Biden and anti-Trump causes so far in the 2024 election cycle, federal records show. Most of the money, $6.8 million, went to American Bridge PAC, which has run advertising against former President Donald J. Trump in key battleground states. He also gave $1 million to the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, which Mr. Moritz has encouraged his network to support over the years.
Mr. Moritz said in a follow-up email that all of his giving to the party — not just to Mr. Biden — was now on hold.
“I would vote for Biden, but I would not give another penny to any fund-raising appeals from Democrats,” he wrote.
Mr. Moritz, a former reporter for Time magazine who wrote a book about Steve Jobs, is one of Silicon Valley’s most famed investors. Born in Wales, he spent decades leading Sequoia Capital, the tech industry’s most celebrated venture capital firm. Like some other tech executives, he decided to become hyper-involved in partisan politics only after Mr. Trump’s election in 2016.
Mr. Moritz joins other Silicon Valley leaders, such as the Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings and the Zynga co-founder Mark Pincus, in calling for Mr. Biden to step aside. On Friday afternoon, Vice President Kamala Harris is set to address some major Silicon Valley donors on a private conference call promoted by Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn.
With the Republican National Convention finished in Milwaukee, a wave of Democratic lawmakers were calling on Friday for Mr. Biden to quit the race, including Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico; Representative Zoe Lofgren of California, who is a key ally of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi; and four other House members who did so in a joint letter.
Behind the scenes, numerous top Democratic donors have pushed for Mr. Biden to step aside. But Mr. Moritz is perhaps the most significant to now do so publicly. The Times reported last week that Mr. Biden’s leading super PAC, Future Forward, had seen $90 million in pledged donations put on hold.
The slowdown has affected Mr. Biden’s campaign, too, with major donations said to be on track to be roughly half of the June amount, The Times also reported.
As Mr. Biden isolates in Delaware after testing positive for Covid-19, donors on Friday received an invitation for a fund-raiser with the first lady, Jill Biden, next week — in Paris. The event is scheduled for Thursday, the day before the Olympics begin in France.
Shane Goldmacher is a national political correspondent, covering the 2024 campaign and the major developments, trends and forces shaping American politics. He can be reached at [email protected]. More about Shane Goldmacher
Theodore Schleifer writes about campaign finance and the influence of billionaires in American politics. More about Theodore Schleifer
See more on: President Joe Biden, Democratic Party, 2024 Elections, U.S. Politics
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Source: nytimes.com
