Earlier this week, Matt wrote about how Joe Biden's presidential library found a home in Delaware and how Biden had assembled a "a 13-member governance board tasked with overseeing fundraising and site selection, including Antony Blinken, Steve Ricchetti, Rufus Gifford, and other Biden-world regulars."
They have their work cut out for them.
In the same article, Matt suggested that they may have a hard time finding Democrats who want to help fund the project that the Bidens want to be an "immersive museum of his presidency, as well as spaces devoted to civic engagement, education, leadership, and policy debates."
Well, Matt was right. (I promised him I'd say that, but it's true.)
Related: Joe Biden’s Presidential Library Is Going to Be a Humiliating Disaster
NBC itself admitted on Friday that several Biden donors and bundlers, who were once major supporters, are backing away from the former president. Here's more from those donors who spoke to NBC:
'I want an $800,000 refund,' said John Morgan, a Florida-based personal injury lawyer. He was referring to the nearly $1 million he said he raised for Biden that went to then-Vice President Kamala Harris last year, after she assumed Biden’s role as the Democratic presidential nominee. 'I don’t believe a library will ever be built unless it’s a bookmobile from the old days,' added Morgan, who is a longtime Biden devotee.
Susie Buell, a major donor in the Democratic Party, said, 'No one has asked, but I am not inclined to give to libraries.''I’d like him to have some nice library,' a third donor chimed in. 'I just don’t see that’s where I’m going to spend my money.'
And a fourth, who was a Biden bundler and onetime administration official, replied succinctly: 'Me? No way.'
Most of the more than half a dozen people who were once major Biden donors or bundlers who spoke with NBC News said they harbored no ill will toward Biden himself but either wouldn’t give to the library or would give only a token amount. A number of them requested anonymity to speak frankly.
According to NBC, the donors they spoke to gave reasons that ranged from saving their money for the future of the Democrat Party (I'm not sure money is going to solve those problems) to "personal interactions with Biden’s inner circle... being so distasteful they believed it would be a barrier to ever raising significant funds for the 46th president of the United States."
Others "groaned about a lack of access to the former president when he was in office. They said they were tapped time and again to write checks but then couldn’t get a phone call returned, with some blaming a close-knit circle for isolating the president — only for contributors to later find out he was showing signs of mental decline."
Matt reported that "George H.W. Bush’s library in Texas cost a modest $43 million back in the 1990s. Bill Clinton’s library cost nearly four times as much. George W. Bush raised $500 million for his library. The Obama Foundation set a fundraising goal of $1.6 billion for that towering turd they’re building in Chicago."
Team Biden is hoping to bring in between $200 million and $300 million. Good luck with that one.
Democratic National Committee fundraising chair Chris Korge tried to blame it mostly on, you guessed it, Donald Trump. "This is a very difficult time to raise large checks for Democrats because of how vindictive Donald Trump is," he said, before admitting that Biden probably didn't do enough to fundraise during his presidency.
Maybe that bookmobile isn't such a bad idea after all.
Design for Biden's presidential library just released. pic.twitter.com/HRq8dDgXvK
— David Joe May (@TheGrayRider) September 12, 2025
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