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.
"I think that it's unquestionable that there was just an abdication of leadership starting within that inner circle," he says. "The inability of any of those [staffers] to sit the president down and say, 'Look, you need to look at this clear eyed and realize that you're going to be 86 years old and you're not up to this and everybody knows it.' That never happened."
Interview highlights
On why Biden's staffers believed he could still govern
I think that this is much more interesting and not nearly as simple as the notion of a cover-up. In other words, I am convinced that Joe Biden's inner circle was convinced that Joe Biden was capable of governing, and they believed that he could do it for another four years. And we can't dismiss the fact that Biden on the very last day, July 21st, that Sunday when his aides came to hammer out his abdication statement, Joe Biden was on the phone parsing the details of a complex multi-nation prisoner swap. He was on top of every detail.
People who visited Biden in the Oval Office to talk about the Middle East said he was on top of every nuance of Middle Eastern policy. ... Joe Biden, behind closed doors, was governing, capably, whether you liked his policies or not. So there's no question that he was a shadow of the campaigner that he once was, and that was true from 2020 all the way to the end. But, you can't dismiss the fact — it's an inconvenient fact for people who say it was a cover-up — that Biden was capable.
On Biden and Obama's relationship
The whole relationship between Joe Biden and Barack Obama is so complex and fascinating and with so many levels to it. I mean, on the one hand, there's no question about the fact that they really bonded over Beau Biden's tragic death. And Barack Obama took Joe Biden under his wing, and they developed a closeness there. But at the same time, there's a real competitiveness between them. And the Obama camp, for example, was not amused when Biden's staffers were going around early in his first term and talking about how the American Rescue Plan was so much bigger than Obama's stimulus package back in 2009. They're just competitive, these two camps. The other major factor here is that Joe Biden never forgave Barack Obama for putting his thumb on the scale for Hillary Clinton to become the nominee in 2016. That was a really deep wound for Joe Biden.
And in the end, it became clear that as during that fateful weekend of July 20-21, that Barack Obama wasn't really there. He just wasn't there for Joe Biden. One of Biden's closest friends told me that the thing that really got him was that Obama never picked up the phone and called him and just said, "You know Joe, geez, are you sure you're up to this?" That never happened. There was a phone call earlier after the debate saying, "Hey, it was just a bad night. Don't worry about it." But when things went south and Biden was on the ropes, Barack Obama never picked up the phone.
On Kamala Harris putting together a "stealth campaign" before Biden officially dropped out
Prior to that weekend when Biden made his decision, up to that point, Harris had had to be absolutely scrupulous. She was walking through a minefield. I mean, she had to be so careful not to give any hint that she was thinking about taking over the top spot on the ticket. But the truth was that she was quietly and secretly preparing. Her camp had reached out to Democratic political operatives who were looking at the rules and getting ready and making sure that if that day came, when that day came, I think they thought that she would be ready to go. And sure enough, she was. But not only were those operatives looking at the rules and figuring out how she could grasp the nomination, they were also putting out the word to some senators that they needed to come out in favor of Joe Biden stepping aside. And so there was a campaign, a stealth campaign going on prior to that Sunday.
On Harris' inability to differentiate herself from Biden
She had to be prepared for the $64,000 question, which they knew was coming, and that was: What would you do differently from Joe Biden? And when that day came, when Kamala Harris was appearing on the ABC program, The View, it was a disaster. She fumbled the answer. … Inexplicably, she said, "Well, I can't think of a single thing," was how she began the answer. That was immediately turned into a campaign commercial by the Trump team, which was devastating. And that was a real turning point of the campaign. … She was prepared, but she couldn't answer the question. and I think the reason is that fundamentally Kamala Harris was loyal to Joe Biden.
One of the ironies here is that her top campaign officials, Jen O'Malley-Dillon and Lorraine Voles, had gone to the White House and specifically sat down with Jeff Zients, Joe Biden's chief of staff, and in effect asked for permission to separate themselves from Biden. And Zients told them, go for it. Do whatever you have to do. Not only that, Joe Biden personally called Kamala Harris and said, look, I get it. You need to win this campaign and don't worry about hurting my feelings, in effect, not in those words. It's fascinating to me that even then she was unable to make that break.
Sam Briger and Anna Bauman produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Dana Farrington adapted it for the web.
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