Joe Biden, Bleeding Cash, Spent Nearly $1 Million on Private Jets
Sam Stein,The Daily Beast 1 hour 10 minutes ago
Joe Biden’s presidential campaign is bleeding cash. And a big reason why appears to be an antiquated, higher-end approach to electoral politics that the former vice president has adopted.
Biden’s team spent more than $923,000 on private jets during the third quarter of 2019, according to recently filed Federal Election Commission data. The expenses, all made to the company EJCR, LLC Dba Advanced Aviation Team, represented a major chunk of change—accounting for roughly one out of every 16 dollars the campaign raised.
It’s not uncommon for candidates to lean on private jets as they crisscross the country in an effort to keep a schedule packed with speeches, rallies, and debates. But a review of Biden’s expenditures suggest that a good deal of what he’s spending money on currently involve efforts to simply raise more money.
The former vice president spent more than $230,000 on “fundraising consultants” during Q3; nearly $500,000 on direct mail; and major chunks of change on high-end hotels in cities that serve as donor hubs but aren’t centrally located in early-voting states. During the third quarter period, the Biden campaign spent more than $20,000 at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City; more than $14,000 at the Coronado Island Marriott in San Diego; more than $4,400 at the Hotel Jerome Auberge in Aspen; more than $10,5000 at the W Hotel in Los Angeles, and more than $3,000 at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho.
While the campaign’s major expenses remained on traditional campaign functions like payroll (which was nearly $9 million), office rentals, and digital advertising, the campaign also spent heavily on consultants—including several big-named aides.
During Q3, the Biden campaign spent $228,378 on research consultants and $150,400 on “strategic consultants.” The firm Anzalone Liszt Grove Research Inc., run by longtime Biden pollster John Anzalone, received more than $122,000 for polling. And two well-known Biden advisers, Bruce Reed and Anthony Blinken, received $35,000 and $10,500 respectively for “policy consulting.”
Asked what type of policy work he was doing, Reed told The Daily Beast only: “Domestic.”
Collectively, the expenditures have taken a toll on the Biden campaign’s bottom line and raised questions about its long-term viability. Overall, Biden currently has less than $9 million cash on-hand after taking in roughly $15.7 million during Q3 and spending $17.6 million during that same period.
Asked for comment, a Biden aide noted that some of the cost of the private jet travel was for carbon offsets. As for the broader financial picture, Biden himself told reporters that he was not worried about his campaign’s financial situation.
carbon offsets. WTF? bahhaaaaaa who knew there were carbon friendly Lear Jets!
“We are doing fine. Fundraising is building we’ve raised a lot of money online and we’ve raised money offline as well. So we feel confident we're going to be ready,” said Biden.
But Democrats who have worked on past campaigns that bled cash recognize some similarities.
“When you are a candidate running for president the other thing to keep in mind is, it is a difficult and rigorous schedule, and to the extent there are creature comforts that people have they are going to do whatever they can to make the person comfortable,” said Phil Singer, who worked as a press hand for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign, which also ended up in difficult financial straits. “But it is something they will have to solve fairly soon. Money, after all, doesn’t grow on trees.”
BAHHAHHHHAAAHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
- The_Waco_Kid
- 10-16-2019, 12:28 PM
- bambino
- 10-16-2019, 01:17 PM
Maybe Hillary can donate her Scooby Doo/ambulance van to the Biden campaign.
BAHAHAHAHA
BAHAHAHAHA
- Unique_Carpenter
- 10-16-2019, 02:03 PM
So if Biden accepts donations from overseas, wouldn't he have to give whomever foreign aid if he becomes prez?
- matchingmole
- 10-16-2019, 05:20 PM
- bambino
- 10-16-2019, 05:31 PM
- The_Waco_Kid
- 10-16-2019, 05:35 PM
- matchingmole
- 10-16-2019, 06:36 PM
- matchingmole
- 10-16-2019, 06:37 PM
- The_Waco_Kid
- 10-16-2019, 11:39 PM
- friendly fred
- 10-17-2019, 05:37 AM
I feel like a principle reason they may have money issues is donors are losing interest.
- gnadfly
- 10-17-2019, 06:52 AM
And when voters lose interest in Biden will impeachment lose steam?
I wonder where Biden's carbon offset credits are going to. My guess: Biden.
I wonder where Biden's carbon offset credits are going to. My guess: Biden.
- matchingmole
- 10-17-2019, 06:56 AM
- The_Waco_Kid
- 10-17-2019, 05:08 PM
when clearly left leaning Politico begins writing Biden's campaign obituary you know it's over for "Corn Pop"
‘They’ve got no margin for error’: Biden cash crunch raises alarms
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/1...ng-2020-049062
By MARC CAPUTO and NATASHA KORECKI
10/16/2019 06:47 PM EDT
Updated: 10/16/2019 09:51 PM EDT
Stalled in the polls and on the heels of another uninspiring debate performance, Joe Biden’s campaign was forced to respond to another troubling issue Wednesday: his lackluster fundraising.
Just months ago, Biden’s initial cash haul surprised naysayers who doubted he could compete with the money-minting machines that are Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. But now the former vice president is bleeding money.
Biden spent almost $2 million more than his presidential campaign raised in the third quarter, a predicament caused by sluggish fundraising coupled with the expenses of maintaining a big payroll and a nationwide operation — one that included luxury expenses such as swank hotel stays at the Westin and The W, and nearly $1 million for private jets.
His cash on hand sum of $8.9 million is so low that it’s almost four times lower than the $33.7 million banked by Sanders, nearly three times lower than Warren’s $25.7 million war chest and more than twice as small as Pete Buttigieg’s $23.3 million.
Democrats on Wednesday expressed grave reservations about whether Biden’s fundraising performance is an indication he cannot go the distance.
“It’s a high burn rate and that’s a big problem,” said Joe Trippi, a veteran of multiple presidential campaigns. “They’ve got no margin for error with what they’ve got in the bank.”
Biden’s top tier opponents vastly outraised him. And unlike the former vice president, none of them spent more than they earned, according to the campaign finance reports that were released hours after the debate.
“If he stumbles at all, he’s in big trouble. Is it enough to make it through Iowa and New Hampshire? Probably. But if he comes in third in Iowa, I don’t see how he recovers,” Trippi said. “I don’t know if it’s him or the campaign, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense, the high burn rate on top of what’s coming in. It’s like with the debate problems he has: Is it the campaign, or is it him, or is it both?”
As in other debates, the 76-year-old’s performance onstage Tuesday came under fresh criticism from both progressives and conservatives alike for failing to speak clearly and for rambling about “people clipping coupons in the stock market.”
And feminists bristled at Biden for appearing to shout at Warren as he took a measure of credit for her idea to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, prompting a tense exchange during which he tried to recover by telling Warren she did a “helluva job,” to which Warren coldly replied, “Thank you.”
“You could hear a gasp from women in the debate hall as women sat up in their chairs,” said Rebecca Katz, a progressive consultant and frequent Biden critic who was in the audience Tuesday night. “There was only one real moment of the night where Biden really stood out and that moment was not at all good for him.”
Biden fared better on foreign policy, where his experience showed. Tom Donilon, who worked as national security adviser to Barack Obama and is a longtime friend of Biden, said the former vice president dominated the discussion, including laying out how Trump’s actions in the Middle East are resulting “in extraordinary volatility.”
“The damage is broad and will require a president to address it day one,” said Donilon, who advised Obama in a 2008 debate against the late John McCain that focused on foreign policy. “His answers last night were specific and showed his experience. There are very few people in the country with the depth and level of experience in national security that the vice president has.”
Biden’s financial struggles coincide with Warren’s surge in the polls, leaving her tied with him in some national polls and surpassing him in some early state surveys as well.
Biden and his campaign have insisted for months that he’s got a plan and he’s sticking to it.
“I am confident,” Biden told reporters on Wednesday after his financial reports revealed his precarious condition .
He also said he isn’t changing anything, and then took a veiled shot at Warren for transferring money from her Senate account before entering the presidential race.
“Remember, we got started later than anybody at all in this campaign, number one. Number two, we did not start off by dropping $10 million from a Senate campaign, wherever that money was raised from, into a race,” Biden said. “Number three, we've been in the process of having about a third of the time that many people have had. And we’re doing fine. Our fundraising is building. We’ve raised a lot of money online and we’ve raised money offline as well. So we feel confident we're going to be ready.”
Biden donor Denise Bauer, a former ambassador to Belgium, echoed the sentiment, citing an uptick in donations at the end of September and the beginning of October.
“The digital side of things are growing; we raised $1 million just online in the first week of Q4,” Bauer said. “It’s just going to continue to grow as the campaign grows.”
Others aren’t so sure.
James Carville, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, said a candidate of Biden’s stature should not be in this position. For instance, Biden’s $9 million cash on hand is even weaker than the $12.4 million John Edwards had in the bank at this point in 2007, when he was running third in polls behind Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
“It is problematical and not typical,” said Carville, who second-guessed Biden’s strategy for not being more aggressive in attacking President Trump on a daily basis ever since news broke Sept. 20 that the president may have improperly held U.S. aid to Ukraine hostage in order to pressure the foreign country into investigating Biden and his son over a contract involving a Ukrainian natural gas company.
“He had a golden opportunity,” Carville said. “If I was him, on Day One that the Ukraine story broke, the message every day would have been, ‘They know I can beat him and that’s why Trump is doing this.’ Yeah, he did an op-ed about his family being attacked and all that. But if you do this, you do this all the time.”
Karen Finney, a former spokeswoman for President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s campaigns, said Biden’s poll numbers “aren’t a problem but they need a fundraising strategy for online small donors.”
Biden’s circumstances may have gotten a post-Ukraine bounce, especially after he directly called for impeaching the president — which other candidates had done long before.
In the 81 days of the financial quarter before the Ukraine news broke Sept. 20, Biden’s campaign had a daily average reported donation of $130,000. In the 11 days after Sept. 20, Biden’s campaign pulled in an average daily donation of more than $296,000.
Still, Biden was blown away overall in fundraising, pulling in only $15.7 million, while Warren hauled $24.7 million and Sanders $28 million. Biden spent more than $17.6 million.
Payroll, taxes and insurance cost the Biden campaign more than $7 million, by far its biggest expense. Various digital services were $1.4 million. Travel expenses were $1.3 million and event-related expenses totaled more than $1 million, about the same Biden spent on media buys and production.
With a campaign struggling for cash, Biden’s decision to drop more than $923,000 on private jets to attend fundraisers stood out, although Biden donor John Morgan said he had to spend the money to make money.
Morgan said he wasn’t worried about Biden’s standing because the field will winnow and Biden will benefit.
“These things ebb and flow,” Morgan said. “We know what Trump knows: [Biden] is the one that beats Trump for sure. If the Democrats risk nominating a socialist, it won’t work in the general [election].”
‘They’ve got no margin for error’: Biden cash crunch raises alarms
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/1...ng-2020-049062
By MARC CAPUTO and NATASHA KORECKI
10/16/2019 06:47 PM EDT
Updated: 10/16/2019 09:51 PM EDT
Stalled in the polls and on the heels of another uninspiring debate performance, Joe Biden’s campaign was forced to respond to another troubling issue Wednesday: his lackluster fundraising.
Just months ago, Biden’s initial cash haul surprised naysayers who doubted he could compete with the money-minting machines that are Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. But now the former vice president is bleeding money.
Biden spent almost $2 million more than his presidential campaign raised in the third quarter, a predicament caused by sluggish fundraising coupled with the expenses of maintaining a big payroll and a nationwide operation — one that included luxury expenses such as swank hotel stays at the Westin and The W, and nearly $1 million for private jets.
His cash on hand sum of $8.9 million is so low that it’s almost four times lower than the $33.7 million banked by Sanders, nearly three times lower than Warren’s $25.7 million war chest and more than twice as small as Pete Buttigieg’s $23.3 million.
Democrats on Wednesday expressed grave reservations about whether Biden’s fundraising performance is an indication he cannot go the distance.
“It’s a high burn rate and that’s a big problem,” said Joe Trippi, a veteran of multiple presidential campaigns. “They’ve got no margin for error with what they’ve got in the bank.”
Biden’s top tier opponents vastly outraised him. And unlike the former vice president, none of them spent more than they earned, according to the campaign finance reports that were released hours after the debate.
“If he stumbles at all, he’s in big trouble. Is it enough to make it through Iowa and New Hampshire? Probably. But if he comes in third in Iowa, I don’t see how he recovers,” Trippi said. “I don’t know if it’s him or the campaign, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense, the high burn rate on top of what’s coming in. It’s like with the debate problems he has: Is it the campaign, or is it him, or is it both?”
As in other debates, the 76-year-old’s performance onstage Tuesday came under fresh criticism from both progressives and conservatives alike for failing to speak clearly and for rambling about “people clipping coupons in the stock market.”
And feminists bristled at Biden for appearing to shout at Warren as he took a measure of credit for her idea to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, prompting a tense exchange during which he tried to recover by telling Warren she did a “helluva job,” to which Warren coldly replied, “Thank you.”
“You could hear a gasp from women in the debate hall as women sat up in their chairs,” said Rebecca Katz, a progressive consultant and frequent Biden critic who was in the audience Tuesday night. “There was only one real moment of the night where Biden really stood out and that moment was not at all good for him.”
Biden fared better on foreign policy, where his experience showed. Tom Donilon, who worked as national security adviser to Barack Obama and is a longtime friend of Biden, said the former vice president dominated the discussion, including laying out how Trump’s actions in the Middle East are resulting “in extraordinary volatility.”
“The damage is broad and will require a president to address it day one,” said Donilon, who advised Obama in a 2008 debate against the late John McCain that focused on foreign policy. “His answers last night were specific and showed his experience. There are very few people in the country with the depth and level of experience in national security that the vice president has.”
Biden’s financial struggles coincide with Warren’s surge in the polls, leaving her tied with him in some national polls and surpassing him in some early state surveys as well.
Biden and his campaign have insisted for months that he’s got a plan and he’s sticking to it.
“I am confident,” Biden told reporters on Wednesday after his financial reports revealed his precarious condition .
He also said he isn’t changing anything, and then took a veiled shot at Warren for transferring money from her Senate account before entering the presidential race.
“Remember, we got started later than anybody at all in this campaign, number one. Number two, we did not start off by dropping $10 million from a Senate campaign, wherever that money was raised from, into a race,” Biden said. “Number three, we've been in the process of having about a third of the time that many people have had. And we’re doing fine. Our fundraising is building. We’ve raised a lot of money online and we’ve raised money offline as well. So we feel confident we're going to be ready.”
Biden donor Denise Bauer, a former ambassador to Belgium, echoed the sentiment, citing an uptick in donations at the end of September and the beginning of October.
“The digital side of things are growing; we raised $1 million just online in the first week of Q4,” Bauer said. “It’s just going to continue to grow as the campaign grows.”
Others aren’t so sure.
James Carville, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, said a candidate of Biden’s stature should not be in this position. For instance, Biden’s $9 million cash on hand is even weaker than the $12.4 million John Edwards had in the bank at this point in 2007, when he was running third in polls behind Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
“It is problematical and not typical,” said Carville, who second-guessed Biden’s strategy for not being more aggressive in attacking President Trump on a daily basis ever since news broke Sept. 20 that the president may have improperly held U.S. aid to Ukraine hostage in order to pressure the foreign country into investigating Biden and his son over a contract involving a Ukrainian natural gas company.
“He had a golden opportunity,” Carville said. “If I was him, on Day One that the Ukraine story broke, the message every day would have been, ‘They know I can beat him and that’s why Trump is doing this.’ Yeah, he did an op-ed about his family being attacked and all that. But if you do this, you do this all the time.”
Karen Finney, a former spokeswoman for President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s campaigns, said Biden’s poll numbers “aren’t a problem but they need a fundraising strategy for online small donors.”
Biden’s circumstances may have gotten a post-Ukraine bounce, especially after he directly called for impeaching the president — which other candidates had done long before.
In the 81 days of the financial quarter before the Ukraine news broke Sept. 20, Biden’s campaign had a daily average reported donation of $130,000. In the 11 days after Sept. 20, Biden’s campaign pulled in an average daily donation of more than $296,000.
Still, Biden was blown away overall in fundraising, pulling in only $15.7 million, while Warren hauled $24.7 million and Sanders $28 million. Biden spent more than $17.6 million.
Payroll, taxes and insurance cost the Biden campaign more than $7 million, by far its biggest expense. Various digital services were $1.4 million. Travel expenses were $1.3 million and event-related expenses totaled more than $1 million, about the same Biden spent on media buys and production.
With a campaign struggling for cash, Biden’s decision to drop more than $923,000 on private jets to attend fundraisers stood out, although Biden donor John Morgan said he had to spend the money to make money.
Morgan said he wasn’t worried about Biden’s standing because the field will winnow and Biden will benefit.
“These things ebb and flow,” Morgan said. “We know what Trump knows: [Biden] is the one that beats Trump for sure. If the Democrats risk nominating a socialist, it won’t work in the general [election].”
- bambino
- 10-17-2019, 05:17 PM
when clearly left leaning Politico begins writing Biden's campaign obituary you know it's over for "Corn Pop"Ow that Hunter has resigned from the Chinese hedge fund he can cash out his equity position and help his daddy out.
‘They’ve got no margin for error’: Biden cash crunch raises alarms
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/1...ng-2020-049062
By MARC CAPUTO and NATASHA KORECKI
10/16/2019 06:47 PM EDT
Updated: 10/16/2019 09:51 PM EDT
Stalled in the polls and on the heels of another uninspiring debate performance, Joe Biden’s campaign was forced to respond to another troubling issue Wednesday: his lackluster fundraising.
Just months ago, Biden’s initial cash haul surprised naysayers who doubted he could compete with the money-minting machines that are Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. But now the former vice president is bleeding money.
Biden spent almost $2 million more than his presidential campaign raised in the third quarter, a predicament caused by sluggish fundraising coupled with the expenses of maintaining a big payroll and a nationwide operation — one that included luxury expenses such as swank hotel stays at the Westin and The W, and nearly $1 million for private jets.
His cash on hand sum of $8.9 million is so low that it’s almost four times lower than the $33.7 million banked by Sanders, nearly three times lower than Warren’s $25.7 million war chest and more than twice as small as Pete Buttigieg’s $23.3 million.
Democrats on Wednesday expressed grave reservations about whether Biden’s fundraising performance is an indication he cannot go the distance.
“It’s a high burn rate and that’s a big problem,” said Joe Trippi, a veteran of multiple presidential campaigns. “They’ve got no margin for error with what they’ve got in the bank.”
Biden’s top tier opponents vastly outraised him. And unlike the former vice president, none of them spent more than they earned, according to the campaign finance reports that were released hours after the debate.
“If he stumbles at all, he’s in big trouble. Is it enough to make it through Iowa and New Hampshire? Probably. But if he comes in third in Iowa, I don’t see how he recovers,” Trippi said. “I don’t know if it’s him or the campaign, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense, the high burn rate on top of what’s coming in. It’s like with the debate problems he has: Is it the campaign, or is it him, or is it both?”
As in other debates, the 76-year-old’s performance onstage Tuesday came under fresh criticism from both progressives and conservatives alike for failing to speak clearly and for rambling about “people clipping coupons in the stock market.”
And feminists bristled at Biden for appearing to shout at Warren as he took a measure of credit for her idea to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, prompting a tense exchange during which he tried to recover by telling Warren she did a “helluva job,” to which Warren coldly replied, “Thank you.”
“You could hear a gasp from women in the debate hall as women sat up in their chairs,” said Rebecca Katz, a progressive consultant and frequent Biden critic who was in the audience Tuesday night. “There was only one real moment of the night where Biden really stood out and that moment was not at all good for him.”
Biden fared better on foreign policy, where his experience showed. Tom Donilon, who worked as national security adviser to Barack Obama and is a longtime friend of Biden, said the former vice president dominated the discussion, including laying out how Trump’s actions in the Middle East are resulting “in extraordinary volatility.”
“The damage is broad and will require a president to address it day one,” said Donilon, who advised Obama in a 2008 debate against the late John McCain that focused on foreign policy. “His answers last night were specific and showed his experience. There are very few people in the country with the depth and level of experience in national security that the vice president has.”
Biden’s financial struggles coincide with Warren’s surge in the polls, leaving her tied with him in some national polls and surpassing him in some early state surveys as well.
Biden and his campaign have insisted for months that he’s got a plan and he’s sticking to it.
“I am confident,” Biden told reporters on Wednesday after his financial reports revealed his precarious condition .
He also said he isn’t changing anything, and then took a veiled shot at Warren for transferring money from her Senate account before entering the presidential race.
“Remember, we got started later than anybody at all in this campaign, number one. Number two, we did not start off by dropping $10 million from a Senate campaign, wherever that money was raised from, into a race,” Biden said. “Number three, we've been in the process of having about a third of the time that many people have had. And we’re doing fine. Our fundraising is building. We’ve raised a lot of money online and we’ve raised money offline as well. So we feel confident we're going to be ready.”
Biden donor Denise Bauer, a former ambassador to Belgium, echoed the sentiment, citing an uptick in donations at the end of September and the beginning of October.
“The digital side of things are growing; we raised $1 million just online in the first week of Q4,” Bauer said. “It’s just going to continue to grow as the campaign grows.”
Others aren’t so sure.
James Carville, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton, said a candidate of Biden’s stature should not be in this position. For instance, Biden’s $9 million cash on hand is even weaker than the $12.4 million John Edwards had in the bank at this point in 2007, when he was running third in polls behind Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
“It is problematical and not typical,” said Carville, who second-guessed Biden’s strategy for not being more aggressive in attacking President Trump on a daily basis ever since news broke Sept. 20 that the president may have improperly held U.S. aid to Ukraine hostage in order to pressure the foreign country into investigating Biden and his son over a contract involving a Ukrainian natural gas company.
“He had a golden opportunity,” Carville said. “If I was him, on Day One that the Ukraine story broke, the message every day would have been, ‘They know I can beat him and that’s why Trump is doing this.’ Yeah, he did an op-ed about his family being attacked and all that. But if you do this, you do this all the time.”
Karen Finney, a former spokeswoman for President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s campaigns, said Biden’s poll numbers “aren’t a problem but they need a fundraising strategy for online small donors.”
Biden’s circumstances may have gotten a post-Ukraine bounce, especially after he directly called for impeaching the president — which other candidates had done long before.
In the 81 days of the financial quarter before the Ukraine news broke Sept. 20, Biden’s campaign had a daily average reported donation of $130,000. In the 11 days after Sept. 20, Biden’s campaign pulled in an average daily donation of more than $296,000.
Still, Biden was blown away overall in fundraising, pulling in only $15.7 million, while Warren hauled $24.7 million and Sanders $28 million. Biden spent more than $17.6 million.
Payroll, taxes and insurance cost the Biden campaign more than $7 million, by far its biggest expense. Various digital services were $1.4 million. Travel expenses were $1.3 million and event-related expenses totaled more than $1 million, about the same Biden spent on media buys and production.
With a campaign struggling for cash, Biden’s decision to drop more than $923,000 on private jets to attend fundraisers stood out, although Biden donor John Morgan said he had to spend the money to make money.
Morgan said he wasn’t worried about Biden’s standing because the field will winnow and Biden will benefit.
“These things ebb and flow,” Morgan said. “We know what Trump knows: [Biden] is the one that beats Trump for sure. If the Democrats risk nominating a socialist, it won’t work in the general [election].” Originally Posted by The_Waco_Kid
- The_Waco_Kid
- 10-17-2019, 05:26 PM
Ow that Hunter has resigned from the Chinese hedge fund he can cash out his equity position and help his daddy out. Originally Posted by bambino
Hunter is just smart enough and certainly greedy enough not to throw money away on a loser like Daddy. he'll help put Corn Pop out to pasture and make sure those term life premiums are paid up!
BAHHAHAAAAA