Former Vice President Joe Biden defended his campaign fundraising, saying he will have “all the money we need to run a full-blown campaign” in all of the early primary states.
Biden said in an interview with MSNBC that his campaign has the necessary funds to win the presidential race in 2020.
{mosads}“The fact is we got in several months later than most of the candidates did, but we’re doing well,” he said. “And we’re approaching a significant number of individual contributions. I think we’ll have all the money we need to run a full-blown campaign in every one of the early states.”
The former vice president said he’s not currently accepting PAC or super PAC money but hinted that he may need to in order to take on Trump.
“Here’s what happened: You know there’s been a grassroots response out there to the fact that Trump has gone out and decided to not only ask the Russians and the Chinese to get involved and making sure I’m not the nominee, but he has his folks are spending an awful lot of money … telling lies about me,” Biden said on MSNBC.
He called his campaign’s signaling last week to be open to using super PAC money in an election an “understandable response” for those who want Trump out of the White House.
“My guess is they would have done the same thing for anybody who was attacked in the Democratic primary if they were leading,” he added.
The former vice president has fallen behind other candidates in fundraising in the most recent quarter, raising $15.2 million last quarter and having $8.9 million on hand.
Other presidential candidates like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) have refused to take money from super PACs, saying they will mostly accept donations from small donors. Sanders raised $25 million and has almost $34 million in cash on hand for his campaign, while Warren has collected $24.6 million last quarter and has $26 million on hand.
Biden has held the lead in most Democratic polls throughout the campaign, but his lead has been slipping as Warren gains traction.