Joe Biden’s advisers convinced the aging president to hold an early debate with Donald Trump in the summer of 2024 by insisting it would allow him to reach the “widest audience possible,” a leaked memo reveals.
The six-page memo dated April 15, 2024 — just two months before the horrific debate that tanked Biden’s presidential bid — bizarrely capitalizes and bolds any references to the then-commander-in-chief.
“By holding the first debate in the spring, YOU will be able to reach the widest audience possible, before we are deep in the summer months with the conventions, Olympics, and family vacations taking precedence,” the memo from Biden’s top aides obtained by Politico reads.
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“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,” the memo continues.
Biden’s doddery and frail performance at the CNN debate on June 27 last year was so disastrous, it led to his stepping down ahead of the DNC in Chicago.
The memo, obtained by journalists Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf, features in their new book, “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,” which comes out on Tuesday.
