Vice President Kamala Harris participated in a conference call with major Democratic donors Friday afternoon to discuss what her hosts called “urgent, emerging needs.” The call comes as a growing number of Democratic lawmakers publicly call on President Joe Biden to abandon his re-election bid.
A Biden campaign official told NBC News that the president’s advisers asked Harris to host the call, and that billionaire LinkedIn co-founder and Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman plans to participate.
“We continue to find ourselves in a rapidly changing environment,” the phone invitation read. “With the stakes so high this cycle, we must remain focused on the critical work that needs to be done to protect our democracy.”
A source with direct knowledge of the call told NBC that the call was first presented by campaign field organizers. Organizers reiterated claims Biden first made in a campaign memo earlier Friday, saying voters still want him even if donors and governing Democrats don’t.
Harris later joined the call, which lasted about 40 minutes.
“First of all, I’m going to share something with you, something that I believe deep down in my heart. I feel strongly that you should all hear this and should take it with you when you leave, and you should tell your friends,” the vice president said. explain. “We’re going to win this election. We’re going to win.”
“We know which candidate in this election will put the American people first: our President Joe Biden,” Harris said.
Harris’ other remarks on the call largely echoed her speech at a campaign rally in North Carolina on Thursday.
On July 19, 2024, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris asked American model Tyra Banks ( Regards Tyra Banks.
Erin Schaaf | AFP | Getty Images
The number of Democrats in Congress calling for Biden to step down surged to more than 30 on Friday after nine House Democrats and one Democratic senator urged him to withdraw from the presidential race.
If Biden drops out of the race, which he has insisted he will not do, many see Harris as the most likely replacement among the Democratic nominees.
CNBC reported Thursday that the donation event featuring Harris was sold out even as Democratic megadonors are pressuring Biden to step down. The vice president’s past donors have even begun strategizing privately in case Biden withdraws.
Most recently, Silicon Valley venture capitalist and major Democratic donor Michael Moritz said in an email to the New York Times on Friday, Biden should step downwrote: “The time has come.”
Harris, who has been active on the campaign trail this week during Biden’s coronavirus quarantine, stopped by former model Tyra Banks’ ice cream shop in Washington, D.C., earlier in the day. She did not answer reporters’ questions about the call.
—CNBC’s Megan Cassella contributed reporting from Washington
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