Playbook: Why Biden wanted the CNN debate

Politico (Yeah, I know) ^ | July 07, 2025 | JACK BLANCHARD with DASHA BURNS

[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.

[Red Badger]

“You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.” - Ayn Rand.....................

[BobL]

“Expect more scoops and insights in the days ahead.”

TOTAL BS here - there was NO REASON to have Biden debate that early, and there was NO REASON for letting him take the stage that night, in his condition (rather than postponing), other than the women WANTED HIM OUT.

I was just upset that Trump went for it, probably surprised the Biden Women, but it all worked out in the end.