Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings on Wednesday joined a growing number of Democratic supporters in Hollywood publicly calling on President Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential race following his debate performance last week.
“Biden needs to step aside to allow a vigorous Democratic leader to beat Trump and keep us safe and prosperous,” he wrote in an email to the New York Times. Hastings is one of the biggest Democratic donors to make such a statement, having contributed more than $20 million to the party alongside his wife, Patty Quillin, over the years. The couple first started donating during the Trump administration.
Despite numerous public calls for him to step aside, including those from two House Democrats, Biden pledged to stay in the race to defeat former president Donald Trump in November.
“Let me say this as clearly as I possibly can, as simply and straightforward as I can: I am running . . . no one’s pushing me out,” the incumbent said on Wednesday during a call with the Democratic National Committee. “I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end and we’re going to win.”
Others, however, are not as convinced of a Democratic victory if Biden becomes the party’s nominee.
Screenwriter Damon Lindelof, cocreator of the hit television show Lost, said it’s time for Democrats to “wake the f*** up” after the president’s “simply game-changing” debate performance and proposed that donors withhold their money from the party until Biden ends his reelection bid.
“And so, I propose a DEMbargo. No checks written. No ActBlue links clicked. For anyone,” Lindelof wrote in a Deadline guest column on Wednesday. “When a country is not behaving how we want them to, we apply harsh economic sanctions. It’s a give and take — Short term hurt for long term healing.”
“Is it misguided to punish the entire team for the stubbornness of the pitcher?” he asked. “Maybe. But it’s also common sense that if he stays in, they will also lose. A rising tide lifts all boats. A falling Biden sinks them.”
A lifelong Democrat, Lindelof voted for Biden in 2020 and contributed to his campaign.
Less than two weeks prior to the CNN debate, Hollywood stars organized a record-breaking $30 million fundraiser for Biden’s campaign in downtown Los Angeles. The star-studded event featured Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Barbra Streisand, Jimmy Kimmel, and former president Barack Obama as backers of Biden’s reelection effort. Now, leaders in the entertainment industry are turning on him.
Ari Emanuel, described as a power player in Hollywood, voiced his frustrations with the 81-year-old president on Tuesday.
“Well, I’m pissed off at the founding fathers,” he told attendees at the Aspen Ideas Festival, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “They had the start date of 35 years old, they just didn’t give us the end date. And, well, everybody died [back then], so they didn’t have to give the end date.”
Emanuel also blamed the president’s advisers for not telling the truth about his declining physical stamina and mental acuity.
“I had a father who died at 92, but at 81 I took away his car, and it was a very simple test for me,” he said. “If you were driving from downtown Beverly Hills to Malibu, would you want Biden to do it at night? Would you want Trump to do it at night? If the answer is neither, you cannot have them running a $27 trillion company called the United States.”
On Friday, Biden will sit down for his first post-debate interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos. Originally scheduled for Sunday morning, the interview will air as a prime-time special at 8 p.m. ET Friday.