A former Democratic fundraiser who left the party is publicly describing what she says Kamala Harris told some of the party's biggest donors in the final days of Joe Biden's reelection campaign, alleging that the vice president assured them Biden would not drop out while quietly positioning herself to inherit his donor network.
Lindy Li, who raised money for both Biden and Harris and held a prominent role with the Democratic National Committee, made the account in an interview and in a new book, «Unburdened,» which chronicles the months before Biden suspended his campaign. According to Li, Harris held a call with major donors on July 19, 2024 — two days before Biden announced he would not seek reelection — and told them there was no way Biden would leave the race and that she would stand with him until the end.
«It was all charade,» Li said. «She was auditioning for Biden's endorsement, and the way that she did it was by imposing a fake rule on her staff to not talk about her ascending to the nomination.» Li said she was on the call and that Harris presented a message of unity with Biden while simultaneously courting the donors who could soon back her own bid. «She would host calls with donors and pretend to support Biden and say there's no daylight between Biden and herself,» Li said. «All the while she was auditioning for those very donors.»
Biden announced on July 21 that he would no longer pursue reelection. He endorsed Harris later that same day, though Li said the endorsement did not come immediately and that Harris moved aggressively in the first 24 hours to lock down support. «She was flattering people left and right,» Li said. «The first 24 hours were a very intensive charm offensive on her part. And that's how she was able to consolidate it so quickly.»
Li also claimed that Harris's outreach made it appear as though she already had Biden's backing, even as the president initially hesitated to endorse her. «It made it abundantly clear that Biden had endorsed her,» Li said. «And Biden initially — I don't know if people know this, but he didn't want to endorse her right away. It took him a while.»
The account adds to a broader post-election reckoning inside Democratic circles over how many party figures saw warning signs about Biden's decline but stayed silent. Li, who switched her party affiliation after the election, has said she raised alarms that went unheeded. In her telling, even donors who were being reassured about Biden's viability did not believe the message. «A lot of us have group chats,» Li said. «And the immediate reaction is what an effing waste of time. What a charade, how fake.» She added that the donors — described as some of the wealthiest people in the country — «were very aware they were being lied to, that Biden was clearly not okay and to be told that he was okay when he was clearly incapacitated.» Li called the experience «insulting.»
Representatives for Harris did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The episode Li describes centers on a narrow window in July 2024, when Biden's campaign was already under intense pressure after a widely criticized debate performance. Li's book expands on those months, arguing that key figures inside the party understood the campaign was likely to end but remained publicly supportive.
For Democrats, the recollections touch on a sensitive question about how the party handled the transition from Biden to Harris and whether donors and voters were given a candid picture of the president's standing. Li's account is one insider's version of events, and Harris's team has not responded to it. But it captures the frustration among some donors who felt they were being asked to support a campaign that was already faltering, and it underscores how quickly the party's fundraising apparatus shifted from Biden to Harris once he stepped aside.