President Joe Biden debated former President Donald Trump on June 27, 2024. Biden’s lackluster performance led to increased calls for him to drop out of the election.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images North America
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Andrew Harnik/Getty Images North America
Five months after the 2024 election, some Democrats are still wondering: Why didn’t President Biden end his reelection campaign sooner? Why did he run for reelection knowing that he would have been 82 when he started his second term, and 86 when it ended?
In his new book, Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History, author Chris Whipple argues that Biden’s family and closest advisers operated in a “fog of delusion and denial” with regard to his ability to serve another term.
Whipple had his own reasons for wondering if the Biden staff was shielding the president from scrutiny. He notes that when he was working an earlier book, which detailed the first two years of the Biden administration, Whipple asked for an interview with the president and was told he could email questions and receive written answers in reply.
“Clearly, they were uncomfortable even then with the prospect of the president having an interview in real time with a reporter,” Whipple says. “So there’s no doubt that they were protecting the president, they were minimizing his contact with others.”
As the 2024 campaign kicked into gear, the president couldn’t hide from public scrutiny, Whipple says. He notes that in the days leading up to his disastrous debate with President Trump, Biden “was in a terrible state.”
“He was absolutely exhausted. He was unable really to follow what was happening in the campaign. He was tuned out,” Whipple says. “Early on, he walked out of a [debate preparation] session in the Aspen Lodge, the president’s cabin, went over to the pool, sank into a lounge chair, and just fell sound asleep.”
The debate marked a turning point in the Biden reelection campaign — less than a month later, Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Harris would later lose the general election to President Trump.
Whipple sees parallels between the twists and turns of Biden’s reelection campaign and a Shakespearean tragedy.
