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Investor Whitney Tilson says he felt ‘misled’ after watching the debate with Biden Trump last week.
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Tilson said Biden should step down “if the man I saw at the debate is the real Joe Biden right now.”
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The Biden donor said it would be “a waste of my time and money” to continue supporting him.
Investor Whitney Tilson, a longtime backer of President Joe Biden, says he is reconsidering his support for Biden after his weak performance during last week’s presidential debate.
“I feel betrayed. For months my Republican friends have been sending me videos from Twitter and Fox ‘News’ that appear to show Biden’s dementia,” Tilson wrote in an X post on Saturday.
“While I was concerned, I was able to largely dismiss these often misleadingly edited videos as the usual idiocy of the Republican attack machine, because I remember how they tried to do the same thing to Hillary in 2016,” he continued. “But the debate changed all that.”
The former hedge fund manager said Biden should drop out of the presidential race if his poor performance at Thursday’s debate was not a one-off event.
Biden’s withdrawal has traditionally been crucial if Democrats want to have any chance of defeating former President Donald Trump in November, the Democratic donor said.
“If it’s as bad as what we saw Thursday night, he needs to put his country first and step aside immediately,” Tilson wrote.
“I will fight to my last breath to stop Trump and his toxic Trumpism, but if the man I saw at the debate is the real Joe Biden, then it would be a waste of my time and money to support him because he has virtually no chance of beating Trump,” he continued.
Tilson added that he would still vote for Biden if he stays in office, but that he would instead “put all of my energy into helping the Democrats keep the Senate and take back the House.”
Representatives for Biden and Tilson did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BI outside regular business hours.
This is the email I just sent to 28 Democrats: 12 Senators, 15 House Members, and one Governor (Wes Moore):
Best [],
You may be surprised to learn that I am NOT writing to ask you to convince President Biden to withdraw from the race.
Instead, I ask you to tell him that…
—Whitney Tilson (@WhitneyTilson) June 30, 2024
Comments from high-profile donors like Tilson are likely a source of concern for the Biden campaign, which has worked hard to reassure supporters of Biden’s mental acuity following last week’s debate.
Biden’s performance on Thursday was peppered with gaffes and stumbles as he tried to defend his candidacy against Republican rival Trump.
The setback on the debate stage has only heightened fears and concerns about Biden’s cognitive decline and his suitability for the Oval Office, with some even calling for the 81-year-old to be replaced as the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Billionaire Mark Cuban, who once said he would still vote for Biden even if the president “had the last rites,” said Friday he is willing to replace Biden with another candidate.
“Trump is much better than Biden at soundbites and marketing. That’s the reality,” Cuban said in an X post. “That’s why I’m open to the discussion of replacing Biden and/or Harris.
“It’s not that Trump’s approval ratings are high. They’re not. It might be obvious to find someone who immediately outperforms Trump,” he continued. “But if that doesn’t happen, I’ll still vote for Biden.
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