Ex-Dem insider blows lid off fundraising 'gimmicks' during 2024 election: 'Pyramid scheme'
Lindy Li, a former Democratic fundraiser who switched her party affiliation over unheeded warning signs of President Joe Biden’s decline in the 2024 election, believes the party badly misallocated its fundraising, misled donors and rewarded party operatives who propped up Biden’s image.
"It was: ‘maintain this very obvious lie in return for access,’" Li recalled in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, referring to assertions that Biden was not experiencing cognitive decline.
"And whoever maintained, whoever was most strident in propounding that lie got the most access. And whoever subverted it or dared to ask questions would see their access quickly diminish."
Li herself would find her access completely cut off after she began questioning Biden’s physical ability to serve another four years as president. But before leaving, Li became a top operative and is now chronicling the months leading up to Biden's withdrawal from the race in her new book, "Unburdened." Her revelations include what then-Vice President Kamala Harris did with a historic, billion-dollar war chest.
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For starters, Li believes that the numbers themselves weren’t what they appeared to be from the outside.
"I sincerely believe it's a pyramid scheme," Li said.
She explained how fundraisers would sometimes take credit for each other’s work. In some cases, top recruiters could effectively double-dip on work that their subordinates had done.
"When you recruit somebody, you can claim up to $250,000 of what they raise," Li said.
"In fact, you could poach other people's donors and move money around. And that is how some people reach like $10 million without actually raising a thing. It's like accounting gimmicks and machinations rather than real money. I know there were people who were double counted."
As a top fundraiser for both Biden and Harris, Li worked closely with top donors, high-profile members of the party and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Li described how she had a front-row seat for many of the party’s spending decisions.
Li recounted that most of the Harris campaign's spending went through four large media contracting companies. These contractors, Li said, collected enormous fees and received over half a billion dollars. The companies that were listed in her book included Media Buying & Analytics, Gambit Strategies, Bully Pulpit Interactive and Dupont Circle Strategies.
"This tsunami of money represented about 70 percent of the campaign’s expenditures in the final days, enriching a handful of well-connected consultants while the broader effort collapsed," Li wrote.
In interviews with Fox, Li described how the payments to the firms came partially as off-the-top fees.
"The vast majority of the money raised went into TV ads. And so... You know, people talk about 10% for the big guy. Okay, but I actually think the bigger grift is 15% for the big grift for these media people. They get 15%, 15 points off of hundreds of millions of dollars. You can do the math," Li said.
"The consultants get the money, the consultants that are hired by the campaign, and they're friends of the candidate or friends of Jen O’Malley-Dillon. It's a very incestuous process," Li said, referring to the Harris campaign chair.
In addition to the media companies and the lucrative contracts they paid out, Li believes that the party focused too much on expenses that didn’t advance the campaign while, in her view, neglecting strategic opportunities.
"$350,000 a night slapping her face in the Las Vegas sphere, spending that money on Gulfstream so they wouldn't have to fly commercial, spending it on Ritz-Carlton hotels. I mean, that definitely happened because the National Finance Committee was hosting its final meeting there. Spending its money on tote bags," Li said.
"None of that in Philadelphia," she added, referring to the critical electoral center in Pennsylvania — a state that had been projected to be a pathway to victory in 2024.
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Part of what shocked Li was how brazen the party had been with the money she helped raise. She also expressed disbelief at the message the party spun to voters who had contributed their earnings in hopes of "saving democracy," a refrain Biden used to convince voters to side with him over President Donald Trump.
"Some people forked over their life savings. Like people were liquidating their savings on the hope that they were saving the country. They absolutely did, and I truly believe that they donated $2.5 billion over seven weeks, not so much primarily because of Kamala's strength as a candidate, but rather their hatred for Trump and their fear of Trump," Li said.
"Everyone knew, everyone played along."