Biden’s Wall Street Donors Are Increasingly ‘Concerned’

Wall Street’s game theory

As more leading Democrats say privately that President Biden should withdraw from the presidential race, some of the party’s most prominent backers on Wall Street spent the holiday weekend debating what to do next.

The group — including Larry Fink of BlackRock; Robert Rubin, the former Treasury secretary; Jon Gray of Blackstone; Peter Orszag of Lazard; Blair Effron of Centerview Partners; and Robert Wolf, a former UBS executive close to Barack Obama — talked to friends, colleagues and in some cases each other about whether to stick with Biden, people with knowledge of the discussions told DealBook.

If they favor calling for him to step back, they discussed what their next moves should be.

Wall Street is taking a different approach than Hollywood. A number of media moguls have publicly called on Biden to step aside, including Reed Hastings of Netflix; Barry Diller of IAC; the director Rob Reiner; and the media heir Abigail Disney. (Many are also reportedly irate at Jeffrey Katzenberg, Biden’s campaign co-chair.)

But the finance business is built around the idea of discretion. And many donors want to maintain their influence within the Democratic Party.

What Wall Street is saying: One C.E.O. suggested to DealBook that there was an “inevitability” to Biden stepping aside, describing it as a matter of timing and positioning. Several executives described themselves as “concerned.”

The deal makers are gaming out various scenarios. Some donors have discussed “elegant” ways for Biden to step aside to preserve his reputation.