Lindy Li, a former Democratic Party fundraiser who broke ranks over what she describes as ignored warning signs about President Joe Bidens decline ahead of the 2024 election, is now laying out in detail the red flags she says party leaders chose to overlook.
According to Fox News, Li argues that the Democratic establishment not only saw the danger but actively suppressed it, presenting voters with a carefully curated image of a president whose capacities were already in question. "Whatever was out there, it wasnt the truth. They wanted him to go, and also in my book, I will be telling people exactly who was aware of Bidens cognitive decline but pretended otherwise," Li told Fox News Digital during a phone interview. Her forthcoming book, "Unburdened," due later this year, promises to pull back the curtain on internal conversations, private polling, and the mounting anxiety that she says gripped the party long before Biden finally exited the 2024 race.
Li contends that what disturbed her most was the gap between what senior Democrats were saying in private and what they were willing to tell the public. Above all, Li said she was shocked by some of the party's leading figures who expressed reservations behind the scenes about Bidens decline, but remained staunch defenders of the president in public. She points to Rep. Adam Schiff of California, now a senator, as one example of this disconnect between public posture and private concern.
"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 cant remember what he said on TV, but Im telling you right now that behind the scenes he very much wanted [Biden] to go." Her account suggests that even those who later claimed to have spoken out were, for a long time, more focused on protecting the partys image than on leveling with voters about the presidents condition.
Schiffs office has pushed back, insisting that his misgivings were hardly hidden once Bidens frailty became impossible to ignore on the national stage. 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 Senators concerns and call on President Biden to not run was very public, so none of this is news," the spokesperson said.
Li, who built a powerful fundraising network and moved easily among the partys elite, maintains that Schiff was far from alone in harboring doubts while refusing to challenge the narrative. 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 Bidens cognitive abilities were afraid of putting themselves in the path of his political momentum. "They didnt want to get ostracized by the party. Its like the axiom: you come at the king; you better not miss. Everyone would have missed," Li said.
That reluctance, she argues, was reinforced by internal polling that showed Biden as politically untouchable within the Democratic primary, even as his public performances raised concerns. 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 couldnt beat him in a primary. It wasnt a matter so much of anti-Trumpism. It was self-interest," Li said.
"Ive seen the polling data, and I also include that in my book polling no one has seen before." Those numbers, she suggests, kept ambitious Democrats in line, more focused on preserving their own careers than on confronting the reality of a weakening incumbent. For conservatives who long warned that Biden was a figurehead propped up by party machinery, Lis account reads like confirmation that the Democratic leadership prioritized power over transparency.
Li also says the partys internal deliberations made clear that Vice President Kamala Harris was not viewed as a strong alternative, despite the medias frequent promotion of her as Bidens natural heir. Li said that internal discussion had also revealed that Harris wasnt considered a particularly strong candidate to take on Bidens 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. Her description undercuts the narrative that Harris emerged as a consensus choice on merit, instead portraying her rise as the product of political calculation in a party boxed in by its own earlier decisions.
Beyond fear and ambition, Li believes there was a powerful emotional component that kept many Democrats from breaking with Biden even as his decline became harder to deny. 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.
"Theres something about Joe Biden. He was incredibly kind," Li said. That personal warmth, she suggests, made it even more difficult for insiders to do what they knew was necessary, leaving voters with a president whose capacity to serve was quietly questioned by the very people insisting in public that everything was fine.
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