Top Biden aide promised $8 million for 2024 victory: Axios
3 Min Read
Mike Donilon’s disclosure that he stood to gain millions if Joe Biden had won re-election has intensified scrutiny of how personal loyalty and financial incentives may have driven the failed 2024 campaign.
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Then Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the President Mike Donilon walks towards Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, July 13, 2021. (AP)
Axios reported on Thursday that Mike Donilon, a longtime advisor to former President Joe Biden, told congressional investigators that he received $4 million for his role in the 2024 re-election campaign, and would have been awarded an additional $4 million bonus if Biden had secured a second term. The disclosure adds fuel to already mounting concerns over how financial self-interest may have influenced high-level decision-making in what ultimately became a failed re-election bid.
Donilon's compensation had been partially revealed in the political exposé Original Sin, in which his $4 million salary was documented. However, the performance bonus remained undisclosed until his testimony before the House Oversight Committee, which is currently investigating both the internal dynamics of Biden's campaign and broader questions surrounding his cognitive fitness for office in the final year of his presidency.
In his opening remarks, obtained by Axios, Donilon vigorously defended Biden's leadership. "Every president ages over the four years of a presidency and President Biden did as well," he said, "but he also continued to grow stronger and wiser as a leader as a result of being tested by some of the most difficult challenges any president has ever faced." He added, "I thought that experience was enormously valuable for the nation." Donilon also dismissed concerns over Biden's disastrous 2024 debate performance, saying the Democratic Party "over-reacted."
Democrats pushing for answers
Despite the loyalty displayed in his remarks, Donilon's multi-million dollar compensation, especially in comparison to campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon's $300,000 salary, has drawn ire from within the Democratic establishment. His deep ties to Biden, stretching back to the 1980s, and the high-level access he maintained throughout the administration, have prompted accusations that personal loyalty and financial ambition played a role in strategic miscalculations.
Many Democratic insiders now blame Donilon's influence for helping push an aging president into a re-election campaign that was already viewed skeptically by the public, and ultimately ended in defeat.
With Donald Trump now serving as the 47th President of the United States and the GOP firmly in control of the House Oversight Committee, pressure is building on Democrats to account for the decisions that led to Biden's political downfall.
Lawmakers are expected to continue their inquiry with upcoming interviews of former Biden aides, including former chief of staff Jeff Zients and senior advisor Anita Dunn, as they seek to determine how much of the 2024 campaign was driven by strategic error, and how much by self-preservation.
