On November 5, 2024, the night of Donald Trump’s historic second election victory, it suddenly — and unexpectedly — looked as though he would win Pennsylvania. Of all the seven swing states Trump needed to win in this intense, closely fought race, Pennsylvania was said to be the most important, not least due to the fact that it was the birthplace of Joe Biden.

Among Kamala Harris’s senior staffers, a sickly feeling spread. It had been only four and a half months since Biden had suffered a professional catastrophe while debating Trump; the entire country witnessed a frail, mentally challenged man appearing as if he had scant knowledge of what was going on around him.

High-powered Democratic donors were the first to explode in their cell phones, followed by top party officials, often sitting alone in their living rooms, vaguely expecting something of what actually happened. This is covered for the first time in Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House, the new book by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes.