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The allies of Joseph R. Biden Jr., worried about the decline in their number of voters in the Democratic presidential primary and President Trump's attacks, are questioning the opportunity to mobilize a super-president. CAP to support Mr Biden and have had talks with wealthy donors to gauge their interest in contributing money.
Mr. Biden and his campaign associates have said since the beginning of the race that they would not accept outside spending efforts from him, and all the other major Democrat candidates have sworn in super CAP for the duration of the primary. A Biden spokesman reiterated on Thursday that he was opposed to the super PAC and would reject any group of this type that would try to support him.
Yet several former Biden staff members and political backers supporting his candidacy have held discussions over the last few weeks on setting up a super PAC, and have claimed that furious allegations and often no Mr. Trump's claims about the former vice president had convinced them imperative they act.
"For me this week is all about," said Larry Rasky, a former assistant to Biden, who is now a political fundraiser and public relations manager. "And I already thought the campaign was a bit naive about the resources we would need to fight against that."
In Mr. Rasky's office in Washington last week, a small group of Biden allies briefly discussed the possibility of a great pro-Biden PAC. Philip Munger, an important Democratic donor, and Mark Riddle, a political strategist, were among those who participated.
Conversations on a super PAC were well underway earlier this month, even before the news of Mr. Trump's attempt to enlist the head of Ukraine to investigate Mr. Biden. Mr. Riddle was involved in documenting a pro-Biden super PAC, named For the People, earlier this year. The Biden campaign disavowed it last spring and there is no indication that the group has collected money since then.
Mr. Riddle suggested that this could change.
"The vice president is hit from all directions," Riddle said in an interview, citing negative ads from a Republican group, Great America PAC. "Many of us think there should be a fair fight. He can stand firm with his campaign in these early states, or whatever, but there is only a limited number of candidates that can be taken without response. "
T.J. Ducklo, a spokesman for Biden, said Biden would reject any super PAC that would join the race on his side. Relying on the Supreme Court ruling that legalized such groups, Ducklo said Biden "has long advocated overthrowing Citizens United and opposing corrupt money in our policies."
And while some of Biden's supporters see Trump's allies' efforts to solicit their own money from the anti-Biden efforts, Ducklo said the campaign was taking a different view.
"Attacks directed against the troupe by dark money groups that helped Donald Trump spread his fanciful lies and slander just reminded of the urgent need for a reform of the campaign's funding" said Mr. Ducklo. "That's precisely why, since the beginning of this campaign, Biden for President has not and will not want to get help from super PACs. This applies to those who claim to help it, despite its explicit condemnation of their existence. "
In addition to his public statements, Biden's campaign warned some Democrats to participate in a great PAC. A prominent Democrat, David Wilhelm, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said that he had been approached to be involved in the pro-Biden super PAC, but that he had refused to do so after the campaign urged him.
Mr Riddle said that a final decision regarding the deployment of a super PAC for Mr Biden would be taken in "the coming weeks".
"I am aware that any such campaign will be disowned by the campaign because of the way Warren has replayed his hand," Rasky said, citing the senator's decision not to solicit large checks from campaign as a presidential candidate. despite having done so in his campaign in the Senate.
Riddle said any publicity for Biden would be aimed at responding to attacks by Trump and Republicans rather than targeting other Democrats.
Despite the presence of Mr. Munger at the meeting last week, Mr. Riddle stated that Mr. Munger was not involved in the design of the pro-Biden group and had not paid any money to date. Mr. Munger is the son of Charles Munger, billionaire and vice-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's investment firm.
Until now, there have been some desperate attempts to use super PACs on behalf of specific Democratic presidential candidates, but none of them has ever had a chance to win. major impact on the race. A super PAC promoting Governor Jay Inslee of Washington, has launched a series of TV commercials in Iowa, but Mr. Inslee has not risen in polls. And Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey has strongly disavowed the initiative of one of the Democratic donors, Steve Phillips, to lead a great PAC to promote his campaign.
Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United, a progressive group that supports tougher campaign finance laws, said Biden was right in rejecting any group that might try to collect and spend money on unlimited increments. She attributed to him the merit of being "a declared opponent of super single candidate PAC".
"The Democratic candidate should be chosen by the voters and not by the millionaires and the special interests of the companies," Ms. Muller said.
Nevertheless, Biden's political stance now appears precarious enough that some of his supporters believe that it is worth taking the considerable risk of activating a group that can raise and spend large sums of money to support it.
Although Biden remains at the top of the Democratic squad, the number of his polls slowly weakened during the race. He is therefore likely to slip behind Mrs. Warren or Mr. Sanders in three of the first four states in the primary and caucus. . A poll released this week by Quinnipiac University found that Warren was slightly ahead of Democratic voters across the country, slightly ahead of Biden, though her lead was not too big.
The next round of fundraising reports, scheduled for the end of the month, will also reveal whether Biden is still in a strong financial position compared to his closest competitors. In the last quarter, Biden collected the second largest amount of all candidates. Pete Buttigieg, Mayor of South Bend, Ind. But he finished the month of June with less money in the bank than Mr. Buttigieg, Mrs. Warren, Mr. Sanders and Senator Kamala Harris of California.
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