Netflix co-founder and executive chairman Reed Hastings has joined the growing number of Democrats publicly urging Joe Biden to step down as the party’s 2024 nominee for president. Biden is seeking re-election, but his disastrous performance at the first presidential debate against Donald Trump has led some Democrats to insist he step down as they believe that’s the only way the party can beat Trump.
“Biden needs to step aside to allow a vigorous Democratic leader to beat Trump and keep us safe and prosperous,” Hastings said in an email to The New York Times.
Variety has reached out to Netflix for additional comment.
As reported by The Times, Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, have long been one of the Democratic party’s biggest donors. The couple has donated more than $20 million to the party in recent years, including as much as $1.5 million Biden’s 2020 campaign against Trump. The two put forth $100,000 last summer to support Biden’s 2024 campaign.
Biden’s lackluster performance at the first 2024 presidential divide has seemingly divided Democrats. “The View” co-host Sara Haines proclaimed the morning after the debate that Biden needed to get out of the way if the Democrats are to block Trump from becoming president again.
“I think President Biden needs to step down and be replaced,” Haines told her co-hosts on air. “If we want to defeat Donald Trump in November then I absolutely think that… they’ve got to act fast, and I would implore those closest with the President to have the very hard conversations they’re going to need to have and not just for political ramifications, but for humanity, his integrity and his legacy. That’s all on the line right now.”
Haines’ “The View” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin agreed, saying, “Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy. We need someone who can beat him…[Joe] needs to put country before his own ambition and he needs to step aside and pass the baton. Mark my words, if it’s Trump vs. Biden, it’s going to be Trump.”
While reports have surfaced that Biden is now considering dropping out as the Democratic nominee amid blowback to his debate performance, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has assured the press that is not the case.
“Absolutely not,” Jean-Pierre said. “And you heard that, I believe, directly from the campaign as well.”