WASHINGTON--As Joe Biden squares off against a bevy of Democratic challengers at a U.S. presidential debate on Tuesday, his fiercest opponent will not be sharing the stage with him.
The former vice president is the only Democrat currently fighting a two-front war: one against the other contenders seeking his party's nomination and a second, more brutal one against Republican President Donald Trump. Some of his top backers worry Biden will lack the resources he needs for a sustained conflict. Biden has struggled with online fundraising and, unlike past Democrats, refuses donations from lobbyists and is not supported by a well-funded political action committee, known as a Super PAC.
When it comes to combating Trump, Biden is bringing "a knife to a gunfight," said John Morgan, a Florida trial lawyer and a leading fundraiser for Biden.
Biden "doesn't need a gun. He needs a bazooka," Morgan added.
While the November 2020 general election remains a year away and the Democratic nominee remains to be chosen, Trump and his allies have made Biden their top target, repeatedly alleging - without offering evidence - that Biden improperly tried to aid his son Hunter's business interests in Ukraine and China. Trump now faces an impeachment inquiry in the U.S. House of Representatives centering on the president pressuring a vulnerable ally, Ukraine, to investigate the Bidens for his own political benefit. Trump has denied wrongdoing.
Trump's re-election campaign has committed millions for television ads that push the same allegations against Biden, with a focus on early voting states in the party nomination battle including Iowa and New Hampshire. It has been joined in that effort by Great America PAC, a pro-Trump committee.
Biden, for his part, has tried to counter with his own early-state ad blitz that calls the president "unhinged."
But with fundraising of $15 million in the year's third quarter, he is facing a juggernaut in the Trump campaign, which had raised $125 million along with the Republican National Committee in the same period. Biden's fundraising also trails his leading Democratic rivals, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, each of whom raised around $25 million last quarter.
"This is a going to be an all-pitched war fought with huge dollars," said Joseph Falk, a top Biden fundraiser in Miami.
As distasteful as the idea has become in Democratic circles, a Super PAC may be necessary to battle Trump, some Biden donors told Reuters. A Super PAC "would not be my preferred method," Falk said, but "you can't fight a battle with one hand behind your back."
Biden will be onstage on Tuesday in Ohio with 11 other Democrats seeking the party's nomination. The subject of Hunter Biden's work likely will be brought up.
Hunter Biden on Sunday released a statement saying he was leaving the board of a Chinese private equity company and pledged to forego all foreign work if his father is elected president. On Monday, the Biden campaign proposed banning private money from elections and starting a new commission to enforce anti-corruption laws in a government-ethics plan that doubled as an attack on Trump.
Biden has struggled to match the grassroots appeal of Warren and Sanders, who rake in most of their funds online through small donations. Both candidates, running to the left of Biden, have made getting big money out of politics a major theme.
Biden has had to rely on traditional Democratic fundraisers, where donors write checks and mingle with the candidate. Biden's campaign has said there are signs that Trump's attacks have increased donations, noting that it raised $1 million online during the first week of October alone.
It also lacks weapons employed by 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who accepted contributions from lobbyists and whose campaign was aided by several Super PACs. At this point four years ago, Priorities USA, the top Clinton PAC, had raised more than $40 million to bolster her campaign's efforts. This time around, Priorities is not backing a single Democratic candidate, choosing instead to run ads attacking Trump in battleground states.
"Our singular focus is on defeating Trump, and it's up to Democratic voters" to pick their nominee, said Josh Schwerin, the group's spokesman.
