- Investor Whitney Tilson said she felt “tricked” after watching last week's debate between Biden and Trump.
- Tilson said Biden should withdraw “if what I saw in the debate is the real Joe Biden today.”
- Biden donors said continuing to support him was a “waste of time and money.”
Investor Whitney Tilson, a longtime donor to President Joe Biden, said she was reconsidering her support for Biden following his stumbling performance in last week's presidential debate.
“I feel deceived. For months my Republican friends have been sending me videos from Twitter and Fox News that show Biden having dementia,” Tilson said in a post on X on Saturday.
“Though I was concerned, I was able to dismiss these often deceptively edited videos as the usual folly of the Republican attack machine, because I remember Republicans trying to do the same thing to Hillary in 2016,” he continued. “But the debates changed all that.”
The former hedge fund manager said that if Biden's poor performance in Thursday's debate was not a one-off, he should withdraw from the presidential race.
Longtime Democratic donors said Biden's withdrawal is now crucial if Democrats want to have any chance of beating former President Donald Trump in November.
“If this is as egregious as what we all witnessed Thursday night, he needs to put his country first and resign immediately,” Tilson wrote.
“I will fight to the death to stop Trump and his harmful Trumpism, but if the man I saw in the debates is the real Joe Biden now, then supporting him would be a waste of my time and money, because there is almost no chance he can beat Trump,” he continued.
Tilson added that he would still vote if Biden remained in office, but would instead “do everything in my power to help Democrats keep the Senate and take back the House.”
Representatives for Biden and Tilson did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by BI outside of regular business hours.
Comments from a prominent donor like Tilson are likely to be a concern for the Biden campaign, which has been working hard to convince supporters of Biden's mental acuity after last week's debate.
Biden's attempts to make the case for his candidacy against Republican rival Trump on Thursday were marked by gaffes and stumbles.
The debate setbacks have only added to the fears and concerns about Biden's declining cognitive abilities and his fitness for the Oval Office, with some arguing that the 81-year-old should be removed as the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Billionaire Mark Cuban, who previously said he would still vote for Biden even if the president received his “last rites,” said Friday he would be open to considering replacing Biden with another candidate.
“Trump is way better at soundbites and marketing than Biden, that's reality,” Cuban said in a post on X. “That's why I'm open to the discussion of replacing Biden and/or Harris.”
“It's not that Trump has a high approval rating. He doesn't. It's possible that we can find someone who can beat Trump quickly,” he continued. “But even if that doesn't happen, I'm still voting for Biden.”
