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Biden Group Therapy

Fresh reporting on the collective private mourning of top Democrats after the tragic “events”—as they are known in Washington-speak—of the weekend. Nevertheless, some cling to hope. “He also said he would drop if he saw data saying he can’t win,” said a campaign source. “He’s about to see a lot of it.”

joe biden
“The events” in Pennsylvania on Saturday—as they are known in Washington-speak—at least temporarily ended talk that Biden might step aside. Photo: Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images
Julia Ioffe
July 17, 2024

When the bullet pierced Donald Trump’s ear on Saturday evening, Democrats in Washington sent up a collective cry to the heavens. After two weeks of savaging each other and their own candidate, Joe Biden, for bombing at the Atlanta debate, Trump had just been made into a living martyr—with iconic photos to boot. If it looked like he had been on the glide path to victory before Saturday, the shooter seemed to have made the election all but a formality. “It’s the worst thing that could have possibly happened,” a senior source in the Biden campaign told me on Saturday night.