House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) secured a private meeting with President Joe Biden on Thursday. The pivotal encounter took place on the same day as Biden’s high-profile NATO news conference, highlighting the urgency of the internal crisis facing the party. These meetings have revealed significant anxiety among Democrats about the party’s direction and leadership under Biden, particularly in light of his recent performances on the national stage.

Further compounding the party’s woes, a major financial rebellion is now looming over Biden’s reelection campaign. Prominent Democratic donors have expressed their discontent by putting a pause on approximately $90 million in pledges to the leading pro-Biden super PAC, Future Forward.

According to insiders who spoke to The New York Times, this includes several commitments in the eight-figure range. The donors, who preferred to remain anonymous due to the delicate nature of the issue, have voiced their concerns following what many viewed as a lackluster debate performance by Biden at the end of June.

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The New York Times reported:

Future Forward declined to comment on any conversations with donors or the amounts of any pledged money being withheld. A Future Forward adviser would say only that the group expected contributors who had paused donations to return once the current uncertainty about the ticket was resolved.

Separately, one donor to the group described being approached multiple times by Future Forward since the debate for a contribution, but said he and his friends had been “holding off.”

The two people briefed on the frozen pledges declined to say which individual donors were pulling back promised checks, which were estimated to total around or above $90 million. It was not clear how much of the pledged money was earmarked for Future Forward’s super PAC versus its nonprofit arm, which has also been running advertising in key battleground states. The super PAC has been shying away from making major strategic decisions until it gets clarity on who will be atop the ticket, according to a separate person close to the group.

The cash freeze comes as some advisers around Mr. Biden are discussing how to persuade the president to exit the race, and as his campaign has begun to test Vice President Kamala Harris in head-to-head surveys of voters against former President Donald J. Trump. The number of congressional Democrats calling for Mr. Biden to step aside is growing by the day.

Biden’s campaign is facing a challenging July fundraising period, with more and more major donors expressing their doubts about Biden’s ability to secure a victory in November. After weeks of turmoil within his party, Biden’s NATO press conference lasted almost an hour. While he slipped up a few times, he also gave a better performance than June 27th’s presidential debate. That said, the President did not notably deepen Democrats’ worries about his ability to lead – but the presser did not stop further calls for him to step aside on Friday.

With the 2024 elections on the horizon, the party faces a pressing need to unify and reinvigorate its base.

(VOTE NOW: Is Biden Mentally Unfit To Serve As President?)