A Conversation with Biden after the 2020 Presidential Debate: The Democratic Candidate Is Failing to Lose the Democratic Presidential Presidency

Then came the debate, Biden stepping aside, and Harris becoming the Democratic nominee. Harris has been able to do what Biden could not and that is fight for attention. She had help, to be sure. Online meme-makers who found viral gold in an anecdote about coconuts. Charli XCX’s “kamala IS brat.”

In 2020, when Trump was the unpopular incumbent, that strategy worked for Biden. In 2024, when Biden was the unpopular incumbent, it was failing him. Biden did not have the communication skills to foreground Trump’s sins and malignancies. It was a failure because some voters had grown nostalgic for the Trump economy. It was failing in part because Biden’s age and stumbles kept turning attention back to Biden and his fitness for office, rather than keeping it on Trump and Trump’s fitness for office.

Biden bowed out of the election in order to avoid making a big deal about the race that would determine the future of the country.

Speaking in his first interview since dropping out, Biden said his primary goal was to make sure that Donald Trump did not win the election. He noted that Biden and his Republican opponent were neck and neck in recent polls.

Although I was very proud to be president, I have an obligation to the country to do what I have to do, and that is to defeat Trump, Biden tells CBS.

Biden said some Congressional Democrats believed their chances in the election could be hurt by him remaining on the ticket and he also wanted to avoid any public infighting. He thought it would be a distraction.

Biden is still concerned about the election, the months that will follow and other issues. He alluded to the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and said he was not confident that there would be a peaceful transfer of power if Harris defeats Trump in the fall.

At a rally in Las Vegas, Harris said she intended to focus on the economy, including lowering costs on everyday goods, capping rent increases and reducing the price of prescription drugs — all policies she supported alongside President Biden in the White House.

Harris also told the crowd that she would work with Congress to end federal taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers, echoing a proposal advanced by Trump earlier this year.

The ‘Weird’ Moment of the Trump/Vance Ticket: Implications for Border Security, Immigration, and Abelianization

In the past week, the vice presidential pick of Trump appeared on multiple talk shows and discussed a number of issues from immigration to abortion.

Vance addressed how the government might go about deporting as many as 20 million people in the U.S. illegally, something Trump has suggested he would do in a second term.

“I think it’s interesting that people focus on, ‘well, how do you deport 18 million people?’” he said. “Let’s start with one million — that’s where Kamala Harris has failed — and then we can go from there.”

Vance also responded to criticism from Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, who coined the term “weird” as an attack against the Trump/Vance ticket.