Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House

“One Democratic House member, knowing his words would be repeated as he texted a reporter, likened the president to a punch-drunk boxer. His team should ‘throw in the towel’ on the election, the lawmaker wrote, just minutes after the debate’s conclusion. In the electronic warrens of congressional text chains, fear and anger exploded.”

This quote displays the interplay between political insiders and the press, who try to interpret their actions and even influence them. Some politicians utilize friendly journalists to disseminate their true opinions without damaging their alliances by speaking on the record. This type of game, however, leads to a decline in credibility with the wider voting public, who can’t trust that their politicians are telling them the truth.

“Longtime Democratic critics of Biden were piling on publicly and privately. Allies tripped over their feet as they attempted to retain their own credibility while looking for silver linings. Biden aides winced at the scraping sound of fellow Democrats sharpening their knives.”

This quote underlines the sensory imagery and metaphor that the authors use to ground readers in the often-esoteric world of politics. The verbs paint pictures that communicate universally understood symbols of (often violent) human interaction like piling on, tripping, and sharpening knives.

“Tuning in to cable news and checking social media in the hours after the debate, he absorbed the ultimate insult. No one was paying attention to him. All the coverage focused on Biden—and that infuriated Trump.”

This quote shows Trump’s essential flaw as a candidate—his self-absorption. Crucially, this trait, when utilized by a skilled team, can be turned into an advantage, but in this moment it threatens to derail his campaign. The media’s focus on Biden is good for Trump in the long term, but the lack of attention is intolerable to him.

“Over the years, JOD had earned a reputation as a polarizing force, inspiring deep loyalty among the staffers she empowered and alienating those she shunned. If she wasn’t a master of the inside political game, it was only because she left too many adversaries in her midst. But she was not someone to be fucked with lightly.”

This quote forms part of the book’s characterization of JOD, Biden’s longtime aide who was instrumental to his earlier success. She leverages her usefulness to Biden and closeness with his family to make herself indispensable to the campaign, despite her flaws. Crucially, however, she encourages division among her staff, as long as it benefits her, a move that proves disastrous later on.

“The official grew more frustrated with each call. What the fuck are we telling these people? We are losing all credibility, the official thought. The more often you say that, the more people will not believe you anymore. So, stop saying it.”

This quote displays the fundamental disconnect between Biden’s campaign and the rest of the world. Even his allies were dumbstruck at his stubborn refusal to face the facts, and they reflected on the steep decline in credibility that resulted from his scrambling to maintain power.

“Biden lived in bubble wrap inside bunkers. The White House. Camp David. A primary home in Wilmington that his family called the Lake. And, increasingly, a beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Withdrawn from the maddening crowd of professional Democrats, fat-cat donors, and prying reporters, he honed the chip on his shoulder. He was always right; they were always wrong. They always doubted him. They would never learn, no matter how many times they underestimated him. They were all Obama. They would pretend they had been with him all along when, inevitably, he rebounded to victory.”

This quote emphasizes Biden’s own fundamental trait as a politician, which mirrors Trump’s: He believes in his own ability to overcome any odds. While the authors argue that Biden’s initial motivations are less self-serving than Trumps, his stubborn self-confidence results in similar problems, namely an inability to recognize when others are telling the truth, if that truth conflicts with his self-image.

“Biden didn’t give a shit about the House. He viewed it the way a thirty-six-year veteran of the Senate does: as an annoyingly hyperactive little brother. But the Senate mattered a lot to him. It was the more august body—serious, thoughtful, deliberative—and none of its members had called for him to wave a white flag.”

This quote shows the authors’ technique of grounding the political discourse of the book in vivid, concrete imagery. The intentional use of profanity allows the narrative to seem immediate, intimate, and meaningful to the reader, while the comparison of the House to a little brother foreshadows the later description of Vance as Trump’s little brother, a companion who exists to support Trump or to be silent. This parallel lends some dimension to Biden’s understanding of the House, which, to his mind, should fulfill the same role.

“For more than a week, Biden aides had been frantically pushing back in phone calls and in text messages, accusing donors of promoting their own agendas at the expense of Biden, the party, and the country. It all sounded like a serial killer’s conspiracy theory.”

This quote shows the uptick in anxiety that drove the Biden campaign team. While they watched their donations slow to a trickle, they utilized different rhetorical strategies to appease, persuade, and ultimately threaten their donors. None of these strategies proved successful, however.

“There wasn’t much room for interpretation. Pelosi didn’t want Harris, didn’t think the vice president would prevail in a competition for the nomination, and didn’t think she would beat Trump.”

This quote underlines Pelosi’s essential failure to get her point across without upsetting other power players in the Democratic Party. Pelosi tried to use silence and discreet wording to guide the Party in a direction she liked, but her methods alienated longtime allies and provoked resentment in the eventual presidential nominee, Harris.

“Normally a stoic contrast to the mercurial Trump, Wiles hit her breaking point. He’s weathered so much and his enemies will never, ever stop, she thought.”

This quote showcases a surprisingly authentic emotional connection between Trump and his team. His campaigns have long been marked by the fumblings of self-centered con men like himself, but in 2024, his campaign manager was a true believer in Trump’s cause, as well as a loyalist who made sure no one in the campaign ever superseded Trump’s best interests in service of their own.

“A failed assassin’s bullet crystallized his own mortality and the consequence of picking the right potential successor. Vance, almost four decades younger and ostensibly cut from similar philosophical cloth, stacked up well as an heir to the MAGA movement.”

This quote displays the profound change prompted by the failed assassination attempt against Trump. Suddenly, Trump is forced to contend with his own mortality in a striking parallel to Biden’s decline. The question of legacy is now posed to Trump in the same way as it was to Biden earlier in the narrative, and Trump chooses a vice president who, crucially, could inherit the party just as Harris has.

“Now, with Pelosi and Obama pushing for an open contest, Harris could not afford to alienate Biden. If he dropped out, she would need his backing. She could not get caught measuring the drapes. He would punish that, not reward it. So would his political base.”

This quote points out the precarious tightrope Harris was forced to walk while Biden grappled with his withdrawal. She was already fighting an uphill battle against her own party leaders, and in that way was facing the same issue that had forced Biden to withdraw: namely, that he could not fight Democrats and Republicans at the same time.

“Biden believed his predecessor presented a unique threat to democracy. He thought he could still beat Trump again, but he was worn down from all the pressure on him, and from the virus. If he was wrong about his ability to come back, losing would permanently tarnish his legacy.”

This quote shows the eventual deadlock that Biden faced as a candidate. As badly as he wanted to stay in the race, he could not find a viable way to combat all the voices against him. In this moment, he realized that he had to drop out.

“Now, hearing the president tap out, she lost it. O’Malley Dillon broke down in tears. Joe Biden kept his emotions inside—tamping down the swelling disappointment of his life’s work coming to a premature end—but O’Malley Dillon could hear the referred pain in the first lady’s voice.”

This quote emphasizes the emotional connection between Biden and his closest confidantes. This type of loyalty mirrors the bond between Trump and Wiles. However, JOD’s reluctance to let go of power contrasts negatively with Wiles, who willingly ceded power when necessary to protect her candidate’s campaign.

“Harris was well aware of how she was perceived by many Americans, including no small number of fellow Democrats. The caricature of a bumbling vice president is a familiar one in American politics.”

This quote broadens the scope of the book to look at the presidential elections of the past. It points out that Harris, while a flawed candidate, was aware of her own flaws in a way that Biden never was. Her race and gender also prompted her to be aware of the limitations and shape of her own persona in a way that eluded Biden.

“The whole frame, including the script, was designed to elevate the Obamas by making it look like she was begging for their blessing. This was typical bullshit. But for Harris, the optics of unity had taken on the utmost importance. So the quality and authenticity of the endorsement moment took a back seat.”

This quote underlines a fundamental problem in the Democratic Party: namely that optics and elevation of political elite insiders took precedence over conducting a successful campaign. Harris was forced to appease Democratic leaders in order to get their endorsements, which lessened the amount of time she had to win over key swing voter blocs, illustrating A Crisis of Leadership and Accountability in Modern Politics.

“Trump freaked out, most about his inability—once again—to seize attention. For nearly a decade, he had dominated headlines with as little effort as it took to write a social media post. But for more than a month, and with the exception of his shooting and the Republican convention, he found himself relegated to the back burner. His team developed a concise attack against Harris: ‘weak, failed, dangerously liberal.’ It wasn’t doing the trick—or at least Trump didn’t think so.”

This quote shows the anxiety of the Trump campaign after Harris’s nomination. The media attention focusing on Harris, now in a positive light as opposed to the negative coverage of Biden, bothered Trump twice as much as before, as he was deeply aware of The Influence of Media on Public Perception.

“She did not have the background to create a broad economic agenda. Neither Biden nor his former aides wanted her to formulate one. She would have to stick to personal characteristics to differentiate herself from a president who left many Americans worried about their ability to pay for necessities, much less luxuries.”

This quote showcases Harris’s shortcomings as a candidate. Her core competency was as a prosecutor, which made her adept at debate and negotiation, but left her lacking in terms of economic policy. Though she might have been able to construct a compelling narrative, Biden and his former campaign team didn’t want her to imply a critique of his policies by constructing one, so instead she was forced to appease him by focusing on abstracts.

“That evening, before the debate, Biden called to give Harris a different kind of pep talk—and another reminder about the loyalty he demanded. No longer able to defend his own record, he expected Harris to protect his legacy. Whether she won or lost the election, he thought, she would only harm him by publicly distancing herself from him.”

This quote shows the impossible situation that Harris found herself in. In exchange for Biden’s reluctant support, she was forced to defend his legacy and center him in her own presidential bid, a bad move since he had become unpopular for the economic inflation that occurred during his term.

“By the traditional measures of debate optics, Harris ran circles around Trump. She deployed her attacks as planned, unnerved him, and kept her cool. Most of all, viewers could plainly see that she relished the fight.”

This quote underlines the strength of Harris as a candidate: She was cool and calculated where Trump was bombastic and erratic. She also displayed vigor and energy, which pleased the public after Biden’s shaky and weary demeanor.

“Seeking an interview on a popular podcast hardly qualified as a desperation throw downfield. But it was outside the comfort zone for a campaign leadership that had kept its candidate hermetically sealed in the manufacturer’s box, like she would retain more value without exposure to air and sunlight.”

This quote emphasizes Harris’s main drawback as a candidate: Her campaign sometimes seemed paralyzed by the multitude of options in the media landscape, and fatally erred on the side of caution and polish when voters needed to see authenticity and recognition of America’s problems.

“He showed a political dexterity that the heavily scripted Harris seemed to lack. Over the span of a few days, he turned the word garbage from a negative to a positive—and did so by tying it to his message for working-class voters in the Blue Wall states.”

This quote displays the frenetic final days of the campaign, in which a Trump rally marked by racism and bigotry led to a Biden gaffe that ultimately redounded to Trump’s advantage. This showcases Biden’s ultimate misunderstanding of the American public and how it saw him.

“Trump’s win was an epic comeback with just one parallel in American history. But the story behind it was more than improbable. Trump had been a pariah to all but the most loyal members of his MAGA movement less than four years earlier. He had endured more hardship than any presidential candidate—much of it self-inflicted—and stood higher than he ever had before. Not only did he take the Electoral College, but for the first time in three elections, he had also won the national popular vote.”

This quote shows the underdog narrative that Trump sold about himself. His victory was as improbable as his first one, but nevertheless he succeeded in earning the popular vote. Crucially, his approval ratings sunk to historic lows soon after his inauguration, but for this moment, he could revel in his triumph.