Lindy Li says Democrats feared being ostracized if they challenged Biden, calling it pure ‘self-interest’
Lindy Li, a former Democratic fundraiser who switched party affiliation over unheeded warning signs about President Joe Biden’s decline in the 2024 election, is revealing new details about the red flags the party blew by.
“Whatever was out there, it wasn’t the truth. They wanted him to go, and also in my book, I will be telling people exactly who was aware of Biden’s cognitive decline but pretended otherwise,” Li told Fox News Digital during a phone interview.
Li, who is publishing a new book titled “Unburdened” later this year, adds to the picture of the internal discussions, the research, and the panic behind the scenes of the Democratic Party, indicating that Biden enjoyed only shaky support even among his own camp long before he ultimately dropped out of the 2024 election.
Above all, Li said she was shocked by some of the party’s leading figures who expressed reservations behind the scenes about Biden’s decline, but remained staunch defenders of the president in public.
Lindy Li, a former Democratic fundraiser, pictured alongside former President Joe Biden, right. (Lindy Li; Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
“I remember getting a text from Schiff,” Li said, referring to Adam Schiff, D-Calif., then a Democratic candidate for Senate and top Democrat in the House of Representatives.
“I have it in my book. Basically, Adam Schiff was — I can’t remember what he said on TV, but I’m telling you right now that behind the scenes he very much wanted [Biden] to go.”
A spokesperson for Schiff responded to Li’s claims, noting that the Senator had made his doubts about Biden known publicly after a 2024 debate where the president stumbled over his words, lost his train of thought and spoke in a whispery voice that, at times, was difficult to understand. He eventually called for Biden to step aside that July
“The Senator’s concerns and call on President Biden to not run was very public, so none of this is news,” the spokesperson said.
But even beyond Schiff, Li, who ran a formidable fundraising operation for the party and was connected with a wide swath of its figures, said that many figures who were hesitant about Biden’s cognitive abilities were afraid of putting themselves in the path of his political momentum.
“They didn’t want to get ostracized by the party. It’s like the axiom: you come at the king; you better not miss. Everyone would have missed,” Li said.
Li said that fear was bolstered by internal research the party had done, indicating that no one else in the party had the capital to challenge Biden.
“There are many candidates who polled themselves against Biden and then realized that they couldn’t beat him in a primary. It wasn’t a matter so much of anti-Trumpism. It was self-interest,” Li said.
“I’ve seen the polling data, and I also include that in my book — polling no one has seen before.”
Li said that internal discussion had also revealed that Harris wasn’t considered a particularly strong candidate to take on Biden’s mantle.
“She was the weakest candidate in the field,” Li said.
“I also have polling data right before Kamala ascended. We stacked her against Buttigieg, Newsom, Shapiro, Whitmer — all of them,” Li said, referring to a handful of other key figures in the Democratic Party.
Along with fears about going after Biden and coming up short, Li said she believes the Bidens — particularly Joe Biden — inspired a sense of loyalty in the people around him that was hard to shake.
“He had decades of loyalty — his bond with people like James Clyburn,” Li explained, referring to the chief Biden ally who had helped steer the party for decades.
“There’s something about Joe Biden. He was incredibly kind,” Li said.
