President Joe Biden rode a record-breaking $145 million in “dark money” donations into the White House, Bloomberg News reported Saturday.
“Dark money” is donations from anonymous donors to outside groups backing a given candidate. Biden’s $145 million is the all-time record for a candidate challenging an incumbent president, according to Bloomberg. Former President Donald Trump received $28 million from such donations. (RELATED: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse Speaks At Dark Money Group’s Event After Railing Against Dark Money Groups)
Many Democrats have called for an end to dark money donations as it is difficult for the public to discover where the donations are coming from.
The pro-Biden outside spending group Priorities USA defended their donations in a statement to Bloomberg.
“We weren’t going to unilaterally disarm against Trump and the right-wing forces that enabled him,” the group’s chairman, Guy Cecil, said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump (L) shakes hands with former US President Barack Obama (C) and former vice-President Joe Biden after being sworn in as President on Jan. 20, 2017 at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. (MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)
Biden’s count tops former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s $113 million in dark money donations from his 2012 challenge to President Barack Obama.
Throughout the entire 2020 campaign season, Trump’s donations totaled $1.96 trillion, compared to Biden’s $1.69 trillion through November 23. Trump received a heavy fundraising boost between October 15 and November 23 thanks to his challenge to the results of the election.
Trump’s reelection effort had a heavy head start in fundraising, however, given that he didn’t have to go through a party primary.
This post originally appeared on and written by:
Anders Hagstrom
The Daily Caller 2021-01-23 18:38:00
