Biden allies ‘raising $10m’ to to fight Trump’s social media machine

A pro-Biden super PAC is said to be raising millions to fight the social media battle with Donald Trump – after a series of unflattering Biden videos were released from the former president’s camp.

The videos have amassed millions of views as Trump seeks to highlight Biden’s age, despite only being three years younger than his rival.

The super PAC Future Forward USA Action, backed by the likes of Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and LinkedIn founder Reed Hoffman, is reportedly raising at least $10 million to try and help better understand the algorithms that are helping Trump and his allies on social media platforms.

The plans also include collaborating with left-leaning influences to generate and spread new content online, two sources familiar with the plans told Reuters.

Future Forward is currently focusing on vertical video platforms such as Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok, the sources added.

"Future Forward is around to help solve problems, and TikTok is a problem, and the group is reasonably trying to solve that problem," one of the Democratic sources told the outlet.

It was also reported by Reuters that Future Forward was joined by other Democratic groups like Way to Win and Hub Project last month at a hotel in Washington DC to host 140 influencers for an event called ‘Trending Up,’ which took place across three days.

The account ‘bidenhq’ currently has over 382,000 followers on TikTok after joining the app in February, whereas ‘realdonaldtrump’, who only joined the platform earlier this month, already has 6.5m followers.

Alongside crucial social media campaigning, Future Forward also allegedly intends to spend $250m on television and digital advertising throughout the campaign, the outlet added.

The White House has recently fumed over what they have called an edited clip of Joe Biden “freezing” up while on stage at a fundraiser.

In a statement, the White House fumed at the so-called “cheap fake,” which supposedly showed President Biden freezing up as he and former President Barack Obama walked off stage following an interview with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater.

In the video originally posted by the RNC Research account, Obama reaches out and gently touches a frozen Biden on the arm before they walk off stage together.

However, another video from the end of the fundraiser shows Biden taking in the applause from the crowd before he and Obama walked off stage together.

White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates also slammed the video, describing it as a “cheap fake” in a statement to The Daily Beast.

“By pretending the president taking in an applauding crowd for a few seconds is somehow wrong, all they’re really admitting—once again—is they can’t take on the leadership that’s fueling the strongest economic growth in the world, bringing violent crime to a 50-year low, restoring manufacturing jobs from overseas, and strengthening our alliances.”