A top fundraiser for Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign said he is no longer supporting the former vice president's White House bid — and predicted that others may follow suit.
Tom McInerney, a San Francisco-based attorney who was a lead bundler for former President Barack Obama, told CNBC he informed Biden's team of his decision on June 20.
The news of his break comes one day after Biden delivered an uneven debate performance that provoked new doubts about his candidacy and turned a spotlight back on his controversial statements and past policy positions on civil rights and abortion.
“I had actually let the campaign know I’d pulled back my support of Biden for now,” McInerney told the cable network, adding, “I don’t think he did well last night."
And in a potentially troubling sign for Biden, McInerny predicted that others were likely souring on the Democratic frontrunner. “I would imagine I’m not alone,” he said.
In the most notable exchange of Thursday's debate, Kamala Harris unloaded an impassioned criticism of Biden’s decades-old resistance to federally enforced busing. The California senator also rebuked his widely criticized comments from earlier this month about working with segregationist lawmakers during his time in the Senate.
A host of Biden’s primary rivals have sought to inflict further damage on the top-polling Democrat in the hours since the on-stage confrontation — calling out his compromises with Senate Republicans, slamming his vote to approve the Iraq War, and casting doubt on his ability to help bridge America’s racial divides.
Helping to blunt the deluge of negative headlines, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, an African American woman, announced her endorsement of Biden’s campaign Friday, and the candidate himself launched into damage control mode during remarks at the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition convention.
Biden asserted that he “never, ever opposed voluntary busing” and has “always been in favor of using federal authority to overcome state-initiated segregation,” adding: “I know and you know, I fought my heart out to ensure that civil rights and voting rights, equal rights are enforced everywhere.”
Biden in April posted the most impressive first-day fundraising totals of all the 2020 Democratic campaigns, raising $6.3 million in the 24 hours following his official announcement. Other top fundraisers included former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke with $6.1 million, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders with $5.9 million, and Harris with $1.5 million.
Following Donald Trump’s re-election kickoff rally in Orlando last week, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel
Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine