Amid uncertainty over President Joe Biden’s status atop the Democratic presidential ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris will speak to a group of deep-pocketed donors in an impromptu conference call hosted by a major party donor who recently said he wished to make Donald Trump a "martyr."
Reid Hoffman, a former associate of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, will host a call with Harris and members of his network of Silicon Valley donors, the New York Times reported. Hoffman wrote to "friends and allies" that the call would "discuss urgent, emerging needs."
"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," he wrote.
The meeting comes amid uncertainty about Biden’s status at the top of the presidential ticket. A growing number of party leaders have called on him to bow out of the race over concerns about his ability to beat Trump in November amid widespread voter concern about the president’s mental fitness. Major donors have reportedly canceled tens of millions of dollars pledged to the Biden-Harris campaign until Biden leaves the ticket.
For his part, Biden has said he has no plans to quit the race, though various reports have said he has become receptive to the idea of stepping aside. Harris is considered the leading candidate to fill Biden’s spot, but her dismal poll numbers have opened the door to other potential replacements.
NBC News reported Biden’s advisers requested Harris take part in the call.
Beyond the intrigue about Biden’s future, the donor call suggests the White House is undeterred by recent comments from Hoffman that have come under renewed scrutiny in the wake of the assassination attempt against Trump. Hoffman reportedly told fellow tech billionaire Peter Thiel that he wishes he could have made Trump "an actual martyr."
Hoffman, who serves on the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board, attempted to clarify those remarks after the Trump shooting. But Hoffman’s top political adviser, Dmitri Mehlhorn, didn’t help his boss’s case. Hours after the shooting, Mehlhorn, a frequent White House visitor, issued a memo to reporters suggesting the shooting was "staged" in order to help Trump’s campaign.
It is unclear whether Mehlhorn will take part in the call with Harris.
Hoffman, the cofounder of LinkedIn, has been one of Biden’s strongest supporters. He has donated $7 million this year alone to the pro-Biden group Future Forward and poured millions more into anti-Trump initiatives. He bankrolled gossip columnist E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against Trump.
The Biden campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
The post Report: Kamala Harris To Speak on Emergency Donor Call with Megadonor Who Hoped To Make Trump a ‘Martyr’ appeared first on .
