A bundler for Biden’s 2020 campaign, Khan has decided to quit the Biden Victory Fund National Finance Committee over the president’s handling of the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Khan won’t show up for next week’s winter donor retreat in Washington, D.C., nor will he attend holiday receptions at the White House and the vice president’s residence.
Khan has worked via his private foundations and aid organizations on the frontlines of numerous conflicts including those in Ukraine and Rwanda. But he said the humanitarian situation in Gaza is one of the worst crises that he’s witnessed (he’s visited Rafah since the conflict started). As Khan views it, the Biden administration has dropped the ball. It’s failed to meaningfully push Israel to minimize civilian casualties and has stood behind Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU even as his government has engaged in what Khan describes as “ethnic cleansing on the way to genocide.”
“This is bullshit,” Khan said in a call with West Wing Playbook. “You make moral compromises being involved in politics and ethical shortcuts, but this is just a bridge too far.”
Although Khan has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Democrats in previous election cycles, he admits that he doesn’t have the limitless wealth as top-tier Biden donors. His decision to stop raising money will not kneecap Biden’s campaign. But he hopes it serves as a wakeup call to the White House and forces others in the Democratic Party to think more critically about Biden’s approach to the conflict.
And Khan might not be the last to walk away from the finance committee. Other Arab and Muslim American donors have also been weighing what role they want to play in Biden’s reelection as the death count in Gaza continues to rise.
HALA HIJAZI, a Democratic donor and fundraiser who attended the White House’s Eid al-Fitr celebration earlier this year, told POLITICO’s HOLLY OTTERBEIN that she was considering leaving the Biden finance network over frustration with his handling of the war, particularly after several of her family members were killed in Gaza. “I feel betrayed,” she said.
A senior Biden campaign adviser said donors take issue with the president’s policy decisions every cycle. And while some big-dollar donors have complained about Biden’s response to the war, many have also applauded the way he has navigated the crisis.
The adviser also said Democratic donors have coalesced around the Biden campaign in recent months and expect to finish the fourth quarter in a stronger than anticipated position. Biden will raise more than $15 million in a five-day fundraising swing that started yesterday, and November also marked the campaign’s most successful small-donor month since it launched, according to a person familiar with the campaign’s operations.
“I’m sorry there’s a few folks on the finance committee that are frustrated,” said BRYAN RAFANELLI, a national finance committee member who hosted Biden on Tuesday at a 25-person fundraiser in Boston. “We had the complete opposite [at our event]. It was people saying to me — before I even said anything — ‘this is a hard moment for the president and we’re happy with what he’s doing.’”
The frustration over the president’s response might be shared by just a relatively small group of Biden donors. But it reflects a dynamic playing out within the party as Arab and Muslim American voters alongside younger voters have expressed deep disappointment with the president.
Biden allies maintain the president is hamstrung in how much he can criticize Israel publicly in order to still have influence behind-the-scenes with Netanyahu. There’s also a sense among Biden staffers that despite frustrations from some members of the party, the president is playing the politics correctly — especially when voters are likely going to be faced with a choice next November between Biden and former President DONALD TRUMP.
But for Khan, that argument is no longer enough.
“‘But Trump’ isn’t the answer,” said Khan. “What does that even mean? He would be worse? How? There would be 8,002 children dead right now instead of 8,001? I don’t get it.”
“I’m without a home at this point politically,” he said.