From tripping up stairs to the debate that doomed him: How it all went wrong for Joe Biden
The president finally abandoned his re-election campaign, after weeks of resistance, over his perceived abilities to beat Donald Trump
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Your support makes all the difference.President Joe Biden has called off his re-election bid after many weeks of nail-biting speculation about the 81-year-old’s fitness for office, with myriad prominent Democrats – including movie stars like George Clooney and trusted political allies like Rep Adam Schiff – pushing for him to drop out of the race against challenger Donald Trump in favor of a younger candidate.
Biden’s health has been a concern since his unsuccessful 2008 run at the presidency, some 20 years after surviving two life-threatening brain aneurysms. His cognitive abilities have been on voters’ minds since he took office in January 2021.
A full physical exam during Biden’s first year in the White House found him to be “a healthy, vigorous, 78-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the president, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief,” according to personal physician Dr Kevin O’Connor. In a six-page summary of the checkup, O’Connor chalked up Biden’s “perceptibly stiffer and less fluid” gait to mild nerve damage, and an "increasing frequency and severity of ‘throat clearing’ and coughing” to esophageal reflux.
As the year progressed, Biden’s health came under increasing scrutiny. After falling off a bicycle that June near a home he owns in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, an uninjured Biden said his foot had gotten caught on a toe clip and told the accompanying press pool, “I’m good”. During his successful 2020 campaign, he reassured the public that he considered himself a placeholder who would restore normalcy to the Oval Office while the Democratic Party developed fresh candidates for the next election. The apparently selfless notion was also the practical way forward: a mere five in ten registered Democrats said in an October 2022 AP-NORC poll that they wanted Biden to run for a second term.
In June 2023, Biden fell on stage after tripping over a sandbag at the US Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. A few months after that, speculation about Biden’s health intensified when, at a Manhattan campaign event, he recounted an anecdote, then repeated the same story again “nearly word for word,” according to a pool report.
Things finally came to a head for Biden following his disastrous performance against Trump at the first presidential debate of 2024, which convinced many Democrats that Biden would doom the party’s chances of defeating Trump.
Today, less than 25 percent of voters consider Biden to be “mentally sharp,” a decrease of six points since January and a drop of nearly half since fall 2020, a Pew Research Center poll showed – along with a four-point advantage for Trump at the ballot box.
Here’s a look at how things went downhill for Biden:
Jan 22, 2024: While meeting with the White House Task Force on Reproductive Rights, Biden thanked attendee Jen Klein, his gender policy adviser, then singled out “Secretary Becerra, sitting right next to her, for the leadership in this task force,” lauding Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. However, the man next to Klein was Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas; Becerra had dialed in to the meeting via Zoom.
Feb 7, 2024: Speaking at a New York City fundraiser, Biden recounted an interaction he said he had with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl at the 2021 G7 summit. In fact, Biden had been speaking with Chancellor Angela Merkel at the confab; Kohl died in 2017.
Feb 8, 2024: When Special Counsel Robert Hur probed Biden’s possible mishandling of sensitive government documents, he found no evidence of criminality. However, in a report issued after the investigation was complete, Hur described Biden as having “diminished faculties,” and a memory he called, variously, “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” and “poor.” Biden had difficulty recalling the precise dates of certain major events in his life, including the year his son Beau died of cancer. according to Hur. “My memory is fine,” Biden insisted at the time.
Feb 28, 2024: Biden’s personal physician released the results of the president’s yearly physical, listing a range of mild conditions, including mild arthritis and sleep apnea, but said he was otherwise in fine health, with no indication of stroke, dementia, or Parkinson’s.
March 7, 2024: Biden delivered a confident and energetic State of the Union address, winning plaudits from Democrats along with a bit of backhanded praise from Trump, who insisted – without a shred of evidence – that Biden’s impressive performance must have been enhanced by drugs.
June 7, 2024: Biden appears with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but appears to bungle certain details while talking about a fresh round of military assistance being provided by the U.S.
June 27, 2024: At the first – and perhaps only – debate of the 2024 campaign season between Biden and Trump, Biden rambled, stumbled over words, and was, at times, nonsensical. At one point, after Biden responded to a question from moderators, Trump quipped, “I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence, and I don’t think he did, either.”
July 3, 2024: While meeting with Democratic governors from across the US, Biden says he needs to get more sleep and tells attendees that he will no longer schedule public events past 8pm.
July 2, 2024: Texas Rep Lloyd Doggett becomes the first Democratic lawmaker to call on Biden to drop out.
July 10, 2024: In an op-ed, Sen Peter Welch of Vermont becomes the first Democratic senator to go public with a plea for Biden to exit the race. The same day, “multiple sources” tell CBS News that House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has plans to confront Biden about dropping out. The same day, The New York Times publishes an op-ed by actor and Biden donor George Clooney, titled, “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee.”
Second week of July 2024: Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, tells Biden that he is an albatross for the party, and that polling suggests he is headed for a loss against Trump in the fall. Further, Pelosi said, Biden’s insistence on a second term could sink Democrats’ chances of retaking the House, multiple sources told CNN.
July 11, 2024: At a press conference, Biden refers to Zelenskyy as Russian President Vladimir Putin. Later that evening, at his first solo press conference in eight months, Biden began with another flub, referring to Kamala Harris as “Vice-President Trump.”
July 13, 2024: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer reportedly tells Biden it would be “better for the Democratic Party and better for the country if [you] were to bow out.” (Schumer denies the finer points of the report as “speculation,” but a spokesman admits the New York Democrat “conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden.)
July 17, 2024: Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and a key member of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 sacking of the US Capitol by a violent mob of Trump supporters, joins the growing chorus of voices calling on Biden to quit the race. “A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November,” Schiff said in a statement.
July 17, 2024: Polling by AP-NORC shows seven in 10 adults and 65 percent of Democrats believe Biden should withdraw in favor of a new nominee. Some 50 percent of Democrats surveyed said they were “not very or not at all confident” about Biden’s mental faculties, an increase of one-third since February, and less than 30 percent of Dems said they were “extremely or very confident” in Biden’s ability to govern effectively.
July 17, 2024: Biden announces he has Covid.
July 18, 2024: Former President Barack Obama reportedly tells Biden, his onetime vice-president, that he should “seriously reconsider” his campaign.
July 21, 2024 Biden officially withdraws from the race, sharing a letter on X that says “it’s in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”