Mike Donilon, the longtime strategist and confidant for former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., told congressional investigators Thursday that he would have received a $4 million bonus had Mr. Biden won re-election last year.
That shows how Mr. Donilon held a financial interest in Mr. Biden’s remaining in the presidential race, all while Mr. Donilon was part of a very small inner circle of aides who kept damaging information from Mr. Biden. Mr. Donilon had also warned him that his “biggest issue is the perception of age.”
The admission from Mr. Donilon, revealed by a person briefed on his testimony who also confirmed that Mr. Donilon said he was paid $4 million for his work on the campaign, came during testimony before a House Republican-led Oversight Committee investigation into Mr. Biden’s mental acuity during his term in office. It was earlier reported by Axios.
Mr. Donilon was among the Biden aides who resisted calls for him to end his re-election campaign even after a debate performance that prompted a swell of opposition from within the Democratic Party. As recently as March, well after Mr. Biden left office, Mr. Donilon told The Harvard Political Review that Mr. Biden should have remained in the race and could still serve as president. “I still think he’s the best person to be president today,” Mr. Donilon said then.
It is not uncommon for top campaign aides to be promised what is often referred to as a “win bonus” should their candidate prevail. But the amount that Mr. Donilon would have received had Mr. Biden won is a remarkable sum. The $4 million he was already paid dwarfed the salaries of other senior campaign officials for Mr. Biden — and later for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Mr. Donilon began his opening statement on Thursday by defending Mr. Biden’s record in office and his own role working for the president. He said Mr. Biden was not diminished by his advanced age.
“Every president ages over the four years of a presidency and President Biden did as well, 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,” Mr. Donilon told the committee, according to a copy of his opening statement reviewed by The New York Times.
“I thought that experience was enormously valuable for the nation,” he said. “I believed that President Biden was the best person to lead the country on the day he took the oath of office, and I continued to believe that was true every day he served as president.”
He said Mr. Biden was “deeply engaged and in command on critical issues.”
But later in his testimony, the person briefed on his remarks said, Mr. Donilon conceded that he was often “frustrated” by “the visuals of President Biden that people were seeing.”
Mr. Donilon, through an aide, declined to be interviewed. Mr. Biden’s spokesman also declined to comment.