By Victor Garcia | Fox News
Former White House press secretary Dana Perino said Thursday that Democrats should be concerned about President Trump’s huge fundraising haul for the final quarter of 2019.
“I think the thing is President Trump will have an advantage over Democrats no matter what. He’s the incumbent. He’s going to have so much money and they’re divided,” Perino said on “The Five”. “That could all change a month from tomorrow when you start to see if … the field can coalesce around a certain candidate. But right now, I would say if I were the Democrats, I’d be kind of worried.”
BERNIE SANDERS ANNOUNCES MASSIVE OCTOBER-DECEMBER CAMPAIGN CASH HAUL
Trump’s campaign raked in a whopping $46 million in the fourth quarter of 2019, fueled in part by a backlash from his base against House Democrats’ impeachment efforts and blowing past any of his would-be Democratic rivals. By comparison, former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday announced his campaign raised $22.7 million in the last three months of 2019, making it the best quarterly fundraising report of his campaign.
Still, the former vice president trails two other top-tier Democratic competitors in the October-December fourth quarter fundraising battle: Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont hauled in $34.5 million and former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg brought in $24.7 million.
Co-host Marie Harf dismissed the notion that whoever has most money will win the Democratic nomination or the presidency.
“I think what’s interesting is that we all learn the lesson in 2016 that having the most money doesn’t make you a winner,” Harf said. “Hillary Clinton had a lot more money than Donald Trump. It’s about a lot of different things. So money doesn’t equal victory, right. Joe Biden is competitive with these numbers.”
Harf admitted that she was amazed by Sanders’ fundraising, especially in the wake of his heart attack this past fall.
Co-host Tom Shillue pointed out that many rich donors are fans of former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg.
“When I’m driving around, the people with those big mansions, they got a Mayor Pete [sign] sticking out of their lawn,” Shillue said. “Rich people love that guy.”
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser, Brooke Singman and Allie Raffa contributed to this report.
