Lindy Li, a former Democratic fundraiser who switched her party affiliation after warnings about President Joe Biden’s decline went unheeded, says Kamala Harris was positioning herself to capture Biden’s donors just days before he abandoned his 2024 campaign.
According to Li, Harris managed that political maneuver by avoiding criticism of Biden while telling voters and major contributors that he remained capable of winning.
Behind the display of loyalty, Li believes Harris was preparing for the nomination.
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“It was all charade. 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 in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital.
Li details the months before Biden suspended his campaign in her book, “Unburdened.”
Her account adds to the picture of Democratic figures close to Biden who understood that his campaign would likely collapse following his disastrous 2024 debate, and even before that performance.
As a top fundraiser for both Biden and Harris, Li worked with both campaign teams to bring in contributions.
She also held a prominent position within Democratic circles through her work with the Democratic National Committee.
Following the election, Li began revealing much of what she had seen from inside the party.
She said numerous Democratic figures recognized the trouble surrounding Biden but remained silent, while others moved quickly to prepare for what might follow.
Li contends that Harris focused on getting time with contributors who could soon become financial supporters of her own campaign.
Yet Harris continued portraying herself to those donors as fully committed to Biden and his candidacy.
“I was on the call; she would host calls with donors and pretend to support Biden and say there’s no daylight between Biden and herself. All the while she was auditioning for those very donors,” Li said.
One such donor call occurred shortly before Biden left the race.
Li recalled Harris directly addressing some of the Democratic Party’s biggest contributors about whether Biden would continue pursuing reelection.
“It was either on July 19th or July 20th. Actually, I think it was July 19, 2024; Kamala Harris held a call saying that there was no way that Biden would drop out and that she would stick with him until the end. And these were some of the biggest donors in the party,” Li recalled.
Biden announced on July 21 that he would no longer seek reelection.
That announcement came two days after the date Li identified as the likely day of Harris’ call with the donors.
Li said Harris then moved aggressively inside the Democratic camp to lock down support.
As part of that effort, Harris suggested she had Biden’s backing and launched what Li described as an intensive charm offensive during the first 24 hours.
“She was flattering people left and right. 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. She flattered people up the wazoo. It made it abundantly clear that Biden had endorsed her. 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.”
Despite Harris’ insistence that she supported Biden and believed in his viability, Li said some major donors were not fooled.
Their private conversations, she recalled, reflected frustration with what they viewed as a transparent political performance.
Li said many donors communicated through group chats and quickly dismissed the call as a waste of time.
According to her account, they believed they were being misled about Biden’s condition even as his problems were plainly visible to them.
“A lot of us have group chats. And the immediate reaction is what an effing waste of time. What a charade, how fake. Like these are like the wealthiest people in the country saying that. They 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 said.
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Li’s account portrays a Democratic operation in which public loyalty to Biden continued even as political preparations for his departure were already underway.
