Posted on 07/08/2025 6:57:26 AM PDT by Red Badger
Biden bombshell:
Here’s one for the history books. This morning, Playbook readers can read the actual six-page memo that convinced President Joe Biden to push for an early debate with Donald Trump last June. And a quick trigger warning: Dems may prefer to read it through their fingers.
With friends like these:
In the ill-fated briefing document, dated April 15, 2024, Biden’s senior advisers told him not to wait for the autumn dates proposed by the Commission on Presidential Debates — the first of which, they noted, was scheduled after mail-in ballots would start going out — but instead to arrange a head-to-head with Trump within a matter of weeks. The memo was obtained by journalists Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf, in the process of reporting their new book, “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,” which is out tomorrow.
Read it and weep:
“By holding the first debate in the spring, YOU will be able to reach the widest audience possible,” Biden’s top aides told him — and by the way, every reference to Biden is written in attention-grabbing all-caps and bold — “before we are deep in the summer months with the conventions, Olympics and family vacations taking precedence. In addition, the earlier YOU are able to debate the better, so that the American people can see YOU standing next to Trump and showing the strength of YOUR leadership, compared to Trump’s weakness and chaos.”
Reality check:
As readers may recall, it didn’t quite work out that way. More than 50 million Americans did indeed get the chance to see Biden stand next to Trump at the CNN debate on June 27. But the president melted down; his basic faculties failing him, his reelection hopes essentially torched inside 15 minutes. It was the most disastrous TV debate in history. Read the full memo here
And there’s more:
The book says support for an early debate was not unanimous among the president’s aides, and that some members of Biden world felt he should not go head-to-head with Trump at all. One unnamed donor called the White House in May, the book reports, “alarmed” by a recent appearance by the president at a Chicago fundraiser, and urged his team to “find an excuse” to get him out of the debates. This was rejected out of hand.
And there’s still more:
Dawsey told Playbook the leaked memo is one of multiple primary sources uncovered while researching the book, producing what its authors say will be the most comprehensive account of the 2024 campaign to date. “We have obtained internal memos, audio recordings, contemporaneous notes and other pieces of firsthand source material from both parties,” Dawsey said, via email. “We talked to both Trump and Biden. And we conducted more than 350 interviews.” Expect more scoops and insights in the days ahead.
Final thought bubble:
There’s been an awful lot written about a “cover-up” inside Biden’s White House over the president’s mental acuity. And as lots of excellent, scoopy reporting has shown, Biden’s closest aides were far from open about the extent of his decline. But … it does also seem an odd kind of “cover-up” to recommend the president get out on national TV as soon as possible for a 90-minute debate with his opponent, in front of millions of viewers. One to ponder, as further details emerge.
Getting biden to debate, it was a signature obama move. Full stop.
Just because it was “leaked” doesn’t mean it’s the real story.
Sometimes people give advice in an attempt to achieve a particular outcome. But not necessarily the outcome which might appear most obvious.
Debate Trump as early as possible. So that you can be forced out of the race as early as possible. We are hoping to get Newsome into the race as a replacement and we want him to run a short, punchy 4 or 5 month campaign.
I think Biden (perhaps Jill more than Joe) understood what was done to Joe and the quick endorsement of the execrable Kamala Harris was a way to short circuit the Newsome nomination and totally screw the party that had screwed Joe.
…” unnamed donor called the White House in May, the book reports, “alarmed” by a recent appearance by the president at a Chicago fundraiser, “ …
This is all the proof we need to know that the donors were just laying down some cash to collect American tax dollars later.
I’ve often wondered why people supported dem policies but is all their judgements are for sale, it makes perfect sense why dem priorities are so far out of whack
“””I think Biden (perhaps Jill more than Joe) understood what was done to Joe and the quick endorsement of the execrable Kamala Harris was a way to short circuit the Newsome nomination and totally screw the party that had screwed Joe.””””
Yup. They wanted him out and Newsom in. He immediately endorsed the “black” woman knowing they would be stuck with her or face accusations of racism.
FTA———One unnamed Dem donor called the White House in May, the book reports,
<><>“alarmed” by a recent appearance by Biden at a Chicago fundraiser,
<><>urging the debate team to “find an excuse” to get Biden out of the debates.
<><>this was rejected out of hand.
But, but.........Biden answered every debate question drjill stoutly said.
Journalists Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf, in their new book, “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,” is out tomorrow.
Read it and weep: “By holding the first debate in the spring, YOU will be able to reach the widest audience possible,” Biden’s top aides told him — and by the way, every reference to Biden is written in attention-grabbing all-caps and bold — “before we are deep in the summer months with the conventions, Olympics and family vacations taking precedence. In addition, the earlier YOU are able to debate the better, so that the American people can see YOU standing next to Trump and showing the strength of YOUR leadership, compared to Trump’s weakness and chaos.”
Reality check: As readers may recall, it didn’t quite work out that way.
The best debate ever, the only one we will ever see where there is no question about who won, no room for argument, no marginal victory by one, but a debate where we could all watch it in real time and see what was happening regardless of our politics and personal prejudices for party, we will never again see that clarity between two political pros on a debate stage, pros win and lose marginally, not like that night.
I believe the early debate was designed to get Biden out of the race as quickly as possible so a different candidate could be put out ASAP before the election - which is exactly what happened.
The Democrats let Trump be the executioner.
Two things are clear:
1) Biden refused to step aside so the “handlers” in the dark corner of his Presidency knew this was the only way to get him off the stage or face CERTAIN loss. Yes, this was 100% intentional -
2) It was decisive, no question about it 100 - 0 loss for Biden - Like a Tyson Fight, a knockout in the first few minutes or seconds of round 1.
I think the people that pushed this were ecstatic, their plan worked flawlessly.
A strategic move, must have been a hard decision for Jill knowing she didn't care much for Kamala.
It is telling personal revenge took precedence over the policies of the left. Makes you understand power, prestige, and money are the primary motivations. What the people prefer is unimportant. That applies to most of the top tier of the establishment. I suspect many of members of the lower level establishment are true believers and clueless.
I have pondered this idea for many years, and the model that works the best is to just assume everyone involved in Democrat politics is a corrupt piece of shit trying to get a hook into government money and power for the *SOLE* purpose of enriching themselves.
The Democrats are a corruption mafia that use the government to funnel money into the pockets of themselves and their allies. They also use government *POWER* to funnel money into the pockets of themselves and their allies.
Hunter Biden is an absolute worthless piece of shit that no sane person would ever hire or pay for anything. His sole existence is the result of the Biden crime family taking bribes so that Joe would manipulate government policy to make that money flow into the pockets of himself and his allies.
The Democrats are corruption incarnate. It explains everything they do, and it explains why they do what they do.
The leaked memo makes no sense.
By June 27 folks are already deep into summer activities and have minimal interest in Presidential politics.
“...must have been a hard decision for Jill knowing she didn’t care much for Kamala.”
Remember Jill’s red outfit on Election Day?
Yep, she got back at the Dems for sure.
Yup, it was am to get him out of the race while there was still time. Those aides were working for Obama and Pelosi.
I find it inconceivable that Biden's advisors were fooled by their own gaslighting. It's possible, though.
I think Kamala was the critical mistake. Picking her made removing Biden nearly impossible. Once she was VP anyone else was going to be hard to slip in either as a interm replacement or candidate. DEI ruled and the Democrats were hung by their own petard.
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