Books detail president increasingly unfit to take on Trump, and party infighting that doomed Kamala Harris’s chances

The books have detailed a president increasingly unfit for the task of taking on Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election and his top aides in denial about it, or actively seeking to cover it up, even as the administration warned about the existential threat Trump posed to American democracy.

Journalists Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes were first out of the gate with Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House. Revelations included how Biden aides planned for his withdrawal in 2023, then when his disastrous June 2024 debate against Donald Trump supercharged calls for him to quit, “aggressively” argued that he should not, given Harris would be a “disaster”.

Then Chris Whipple, author of a book about Biden’s 2020 win, released Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History. Whipple’s book is slim, at just 204 double-spaced pages. But it hits hard. Ron Klain, a former White House chief of staff, describes debate preparations in which Biden seemed “out of it”, unable to “grasp … the back and forth”, and also says that after the debate disaster, Biden declined to do political work necessary to survive, preferring to enjoy the trappings of power.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    352·
    2 days ago

    So while I broadly agree with most of what’s in the article:

    Nonetheless, Allen, Parnes and Whipple report extensive shortcomings in the vice-president’s own approach, including the flawed selection of the untested Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, as her running mate, as well as infighting between Harris staffers and Biden aides who maintained campaign control.

    The only problem with the selection of Tim Walz was that they didn’t fucking let him off the leash. He CLEARLY had his head on straight - perhaps to the greatest extent of anyone involved in any part of the Harris campaign. But they muzzled him, because the things he said were often not too friendly to monied interests.

    • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
      9·
      2 days ago

      Dude was punching way above his weight and came out the gate swinging. He really had the Republicans on the back foot with that messaging about how weird they are. He was much more inspiring and interesting than Harris who just came off as an empty suit.

    • blattrules@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      2 days ago

      Yeah, that’s the exact sentence I had a problem with too. I think he could have been better in the vp debate, but other than that, thought he was a great choice and I hope he runs in the next election if we have one.