On June 27, 2024, I traveled with former President Joe Biden to Atlanta, Georgia, for his first and only presidential debate with then-former President Donald Trump. His disastrous debate performance had thrown Democratic Party into a frenzy of disarray and opened the floodgate of calling for changing the Democratic Party's nominee, with the presidential election merely four months away. This photo essay documents what transpired after the debate.
President Joe Biden departs Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, en route to Atlanta, Georgia, for his first and only presidential debate with former President Donald Trump. June 27, 2024.
Supporters and campaign volunteers, seen from President Joe Biden's motorcade, line up along the route in Atlanta, Georgia, as President Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden head to the first presidential debate with Republican forerunner and former president Donald Trump, on Thursday, June 27, 2024.
The White House traveling press watch the first presidential debate intensely in a basement room inside the CNN Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, as President Joe Biden struggles to respond to former president Donald Trump, on Thursday, June 27, 2024.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden address volunteers and supporters at a campaign event in Atlanta, Georgia, after President Biden participated in the first presidential debate with Republican forerunner and former president Donald Trump, on Thursday, June 27, 2024. Dr. Jill Biden praises her husband's debate performance. "He answered every question," said Dr. Biden.
President Joe Biden greets supporters at a campaign event in Atlanta, Georgia, after participating in the first presidential debate with Republican forerunner and former president Donald Trump, on Thursday, June 27, 2024.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden land in Raleigh, North Carolina, shortly before 2 am on Friday, June 28, 2024, after the first presidential debate in Atlanta, Georgia. In what the campaign planned as a victory lap, President Biden is greeted with a marching band beating drums and a DJ playing uplifting music on the tarmac.
A day after the debate, President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, who wears a "vote" word imprinted dress, participate in a campaign event in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday, June 28, 2024, in a disaster-control effort. "I don't debate as well as I used to," says President Biden to a rally crowd. "But I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth."
The shadow of Air Force One is seen as the presidential aircraft carries President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, approaching John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, on Friday, June 28, 2024. After the rally in North Carolina, President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden head to their next scheduled campaign stop: The Hamptons, to meet the anxious Democratic donors who are eager to hear from the President.
As President Biden's motorcade approaches East Hampton's neighborhood, a group of people hold signs calling for President Joe Biden to step aside in this upcoming election. Saturday, June 29, 2024.
President Joe Biden talks on the phone as he, along with First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, their granddaughters Finnegan and Natalie Biden, departs Burlington County, New Jersey, en route to Hagerstown, Maryland, after attending campaign receptions in the Hamptons, New York, and New Jersey, on Saturday, June 29, 2024. The campaign receptions have done little to assuage the anxiety from donors on the president's mental and physical capacity, as the President used teleprompters in a rather intimate setting.
Supporters of President Joe Biden cheer as he holds a campaign event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, July 7, 2024.
Three people from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) show signs to House Democratic members as they arrive for a caucus meeting at the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., near Capitol Hill, on Tuesday, July 9, 2024.
President Joe Biden greets an attendee in a photo line after he holds a campaign event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, July 7, 2024.
National Security Advisor John Kirby, right, and Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, left, answer questions from the press at a daily press briefing at the White House on Monday, July 8, 2024.
Senior advisors to President Joe Biden, Mike Donilon, Counselor Steve Ricchetti, and Biden's campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon leave after a meeting with Senate Democrats on Thursday, July 11, 2024. The meeting failed to convince the majority of the Senate Democratic Caucus to continue supporting President Biden's re-election bid.
President Joe Biden, under immense pressure from donors and Congressional Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and former Speaker of the House, personal friend, Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., drops out of the presidential race on July 21, 2024, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris.
Former President Donald Trump arrives at the Republican National Convention in Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. The Republican National Convention would eventually coronate Donald Trump for the third time in a decade as their presidential nominee.
Vice President and Presidential candidate Kamala Harris embraces her husband, Second Gentlemen Doug Emhoff, after accepting her nomination from the Democratic Party, becoming the first Asian and Black woman nominee for a major political party, on Thursday, August 22, 2024, the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.
A full moon is seen as Vice President Kamala Harris’s motorcade is en route to a campaign rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024.
Secret service agents are on the watch as former president Donald Trump holds a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday, September 21, 2024. After two attempted assassinations against the former President, the Secret Service has doubled down on security measures around Trump, especially for outdoor rallies.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Resch Expo near Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024.
Diptych. Attendees from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. The rise of Vice President Kamala Harris has re-energized enthusiasm and faith among the Democratic base.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump participate in the presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, September 10, 2024.
Despite inspiring renewed confidence among the Democratic base, Vice President Kamala Harris fails to distance and differential herself from President Joe Biden, the deeply unpopular incumbent.
Crowds await before Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks at PNC Music Pavilion for a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday, November 2, 2024. Vice President Harris often draws large crowds at campaign rallies, in contrast with President Joe Biden.
Vice President Kamala Harris arrives in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024.
Press is ushered out as President Joe Biden holds a bilateral meeting with United Nations Secretary General António Guterres in New York City, New York, on Tuesday, September 24, 2024. No longer the Democratic Party's nominee, President Biden's aides continue shielding the President from the press and pivoting to preserving his legacy.
Former president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at his first rally since an attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday, July 20, 2024, after the Republican National Convention.
Air Force Two and former president Donald Trump’s plane, "Trump Force One," land on the same tarmac as both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump campaign in Charlotte, North Carolina, a battleground state, on Saturday, November 2, 2024, for the last stretch of the 2024 presidential campaign.
Vice President Kamala Harris makes a surprise appearance with actress Maya Rudolph on Saturday Night Live in New York City, New York, on Saturday, November 2, 2024, in the final days of the 2024 presidential campaign.
Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks at PNC Music Pavilion for a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday, November 2, 2024.
President-elect Donald Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump hold hands as he speaks at an election watch party in West Palm Beach, Florida, after FOX News projected him as the winner of the 2024 presidential election in the early hours on Wednesday, November 6, 2024.
Trash is seen after President-elect Donald Trump speaks at an election watch party in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday, November 6, 2024.
President-elect Donald Trump, attending an America First Policy Institute gala at his private residence, Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Thursday, November 14, 2024, is poised to return and reshape America's political landscape like no other.