Biden-Harris Wall Street donors try and distance the Democratic ticket from party’s socialist stars
Greycroft chairman emeritus and co-founder Alan Patricof, who is supporting presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, says the candidate's momentum is enormous and despite being stuck in his Delaware home, he is still making headway with voters. Patricof later talks about venture capitalists' reactions to a possible Biden presidency.
Wall Street Democrats want you to know Uncle Joe is no socialist.
Democratic Wall Street donors are telling their nervous colleagues in the banking world to look beyond the Democratic convention's lineup of far left politicians like firebrand New York City congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, socialist Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, and the bank bashing Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren because neither Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris really share their views, people with knowledge of the matter told FOX Business.
Biden and Harris are said to be moderates, but Wall Street Democrats are saying the high profile emphasis on the left-leaning candidates is for party unity and not representative of the Democratic ticket.
These donors believe the lack of enthusiasm from the left cost Hillary Clinton the 2016 election to President Trump, and they are spreading the moderate word in a push for fundraising as the presidential race enters the home stretch.
The main goal is to appeal to those Wall Street donors on edge about the party’s far-left tilt in recent years.
Wall Street often sides with those presidential candidates leading in the polls, but selling the Biden-Harris ticket as moderate may be a difficult task. Both have ties to many top Wall Street executives and during their careers they have been considered moderates particularly on economic issues.
But with the emergence of far-left progressives taking over the party base, Biden and Harris have moved demonstrably to the left on taxes, spending and regulation -- not to mention their advocacy of grandiose progressive spending plans like the "Green New Deal," that is designed to reduce carbon emissions but may also crush various industries such as fracking.
Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and Warren, who have advocated massive regulations on banks, are all top speakers during the DNC’s virtual convention, with Sanders speaking Monday night. All three have thrown their support to the Biden-Harris ticket but only after having input in the party platform, which is expected to be a blueprint for the way Biden and Harris will govern if they defeat Republican incumbent Donald Trump and vice president Mike Pence in November.
Polls show Biden-Harris winning nationally and in many battleground states at least for now.
"The Wall Street supporters keep saying "Biden is a moderate, Biden is a moderate," said one top NYC executive who spoke directly to one of Biden's top Wall Street fundraisers. "OK, but the party isn't and the left controls the party."
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To be fair, the Democratic convention also features GOP speakers who are at odds with Trump's brand of nationalism and coarse politics and have announced their support for Biden. They include former Ohio governor John Kasich, former CEO of Hewlett Packard Meg Whitman who also ran for Governor of California, former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman, and former Congresswoman Susan Molinari.
But many bankers and Wall Street executives remain nervous; Biden and Harris could appoint Warren, who has vowed to break up banks and big tech companies--to a key economic position such as Treasury Secretary. Already the duo has consulted with Former Fed Chair Janet Yellen, a Clinton-Obama appointee, on economic issues.
Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders will likely be consulted on economic and social issues, such as the movement to defund police forces, if Biden becomes president.
Traders say Biden's stated economic policies could lead to a stock market correction, and worsen the coronavirus pandemic induced recession by taxing entrepreneurs and small businesses to pay for new spending plans.
"It's a joke if you think the left won't have a say in policy," the executive added. "The cat is out of the bag."