When former President Biden's team announced last week that fundraising would begin for his future presidential library, the Washington Post noted it would be a "monumental task" to drum up money from "beleaguered Democrats." On Friday, NBC News is out with a story that puts an exclamation point on that. The outlet spoke to several figures who were major Biden donors or bundlers who said they planned to skip a library donation or make it a token amount. Some spoke anonymously to NBC, others went on the record:
- "I don't believe a library will ever be built unless it's a bookmobile from the old days," said John Morgan, a Florida lawyer who raised $1 million for Biden in the last election, only to see most of it go to Kamala Harris. Morgan added that the bookmobile slam is an exaggeration, "but not by much."
The gist of the story is that these figures harbor no personal animosity toward Biden, though it cites "residual anger" about his decision to seek a second term despite health issues. Other factors are at play, too: "This is a very difficult time to raise large checks for Democrats because of how vindictive Donald Trump is," said Democratic National Committee fundraising chair Chris Korge, referencing his own conversations with major donors. The story projects the fundraising goal for the Biden library at between $200 million and $300 million, modest compared to the estimated $850 million for the Barack Obama library scheduled to open in Chicago next year.
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