The 25 Most Intesive Days in American Political History

It will no doubt go down as three of the most consequential weeks in American politics. It began on June 27, 2024, with a debate between President Biden and former President Trump. The Biden team had proposed the debate, hoping it would dispel assertions that President Biden was not up to the campaign. Unfortunately for Biden, his performance was arguably one of the worst in the history of presidential debates. He was hesitant throughout and unable to land easy punches on Trump. At times, he seemed to lose his train of thought, as when attacking Trump's planned tax cuts: “We’d be able to right wipe out his debt. We’d be able to help make sure that all those things we need to do – child care, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health care system, making sure that we’re able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I’ve been able to do with the Covid. Excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with – look, if – we finally beat Medicare.”

Trump lied repeatedly throughout the debate but did so convincingly. When the debate was over, it was clear that Biden had a major problem. To most Americans, including many Democrats, Biden came across as too old to run for President. The White House tried to claim it was a one-off event and offered several excuses, including that Biden was jet-lagged from his trip to NATO, even though that took place three weeks after he returned from Europe.

The next day, Biden tried to turn the tide at a rally in North Carolina where he said, “I know I’m not a young man. ... I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know — I know how to tell the truth.” He vowed to fight on: “When you get knocked down, you get back up.” However, similar to the night before, he came across as an old man making the statements. For a number of critical days, the campaign did little. Biden was at Camp David for a family photo over the weekend.

On July 2, Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first member of Congress to call for Biden to not run. On July 5, in an interview, Biden stated: “If the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get out of the race,’ I’d get out of the race. The Lord Almighty’s not comin’ down.” That interview with George Stephanopoulos was not considered a success. On July 7, more Democrats called for Biden to end his campaign. The next day, Biden called into his favorite show, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and said he was not going anywhere.

On July 11, Biden gave a press conference at the end of the NATO Summit, where he showed a mastery of many subjects but could not shake the impression that he was old.

On July 13, a 20-year-old would-be assassin tried to kill former President Trump. Trump moved his head at the last minute, and the bullet only grazed him. He was immediately rushed off, but on his way, he put up his fist and said, “Fight,” against the backdrop of an American flag, creating a classic photo. A bystander Corey Comperatore was killed.

On July 15, Trump announced that JD Vance would be his Vice Presidential candidate. Vance, young and considered the most extreme of the potential candidates, was a first-term Senator with less than two years of experience and no prior government background. On July 18, Trump formally accepted the nomination. His speech started strong as he spoke about unity and the attempted assassination, but after about 20 minutes, he started going off-script and continued speaking for another hour.

During this period, polls showed a growing advantage for Trump over Biden.
On July 21, President Biden announced that he was withdrawing from the race and would not run for reelection. He also endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him. By July 22, Harris had received support from almost all leading Democrats and by evening, she had the backing of the majority of delegates to the Democratic convention scheduled for the end of August.