adminVice President Kamala Harris joined a call with major Democratic donors Friday afternoon to discuss what the hosts called “urgent, emerging needs.” The call came as more Democratic lawmakers publicly call on President Joe Biden to drop his bid for reelection.
A Biden campaign official told NBC News that the president’s advisers asked Harris to do the call, which Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman, the billionaire LinkedIn co-founder, planned to join.
“We continue to find ourselves in a rapidly evolving environment,” an invitation for the call said. “With the stakes as high as they are this cycle, we have to remain focused on the critical work that needs to be done to protect our democracy.”
The call began with a presentation from campaign field organizers, a source with direct knowledge of the call told NBC. The organizers repeated claims first made in a Biden campaign memo earlier on Friday, saying that voters still wanted Biden, even if donors and Democrats in office do not.
Harris then joined the call, which lasted approximately 40 minutes.
“I will start by sharing something with all of you, something I believe in my heart of hearts. It is something I feel strongly you should all hear and should take with you when you leave, and tell your friends too,” the vice president said, according to a second source who was on the call. “We are going to win this election. We are going to win.”
“We know which candidate in this election puts the American people first: our President, Joe Biden,” Harris said.
Harris’ other remarks on the call largely echoed what she said at a campaign rally in North Carolina on Thursday.
The number of Democrats in Congress calling on Biden to step aside surged past 30 on Friday after nine Democrats in the House and one Democratic senator urged him to drop out of the presidential race.
If Biden were to drop out of the race, which he has persistently said he will not do, many see Harris as the likeliest replacement at the top of the Democratic ticket.
CNBC reported Thursday that while Democratic megadonors are pressuring Biden to step aside, donor events featuring Harris are selling out. Past donors to the vice president have even begun to privately strategize in case Biden does drop out.
Most recently, major Democratic donor Michael Moritz — the Silicon Valley venture capitalist — said on Friday in an email to the New York Times that Biden should step aside, writing, “The clock has run out.”
Harris, who has been active on the campaign trail this week as Biden isolates with Covid, stopped by former model Tyra Banks’ ice cream shop in Washington, D.C. earlier in the day. She did not respond to questions from reporters about the call.
— CNBC’s Megan Cassella contributed reporting from Washington
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