Democrats were making contingency plans for Joe Biden's death as far back as 2023, with one former White House aide drawing up a "death roster" even as his allies publicly downplayed worries about his health that would eventually doom his re-election.
According to the book Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House, some Democratic operatives were worried that Biden would die in office or else be forced to end his campaign.
One of those scenarios did come to pass, with Biden dropping his re-election bid during a summer of historic political upheaval that saw his rival Donald Trump survive two assassination attempts.
Long before Biden dropped out, the Democratic National Committee had considered a spectrum of scenarios, including the one that eventually became a reality: if Biden "left a vacancy at the top of the ticket after taking the nomination."
"In hush-hush talks starting in 2023, [DNC] officials gamed out Biden-withdrawal scenarios, according to two people familiar with them,” wrote Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes in their new book.
An aide to vice president Kamala Harris, Jamal Simmons, even drew up a "death-pool roster" of judges who could swear her in if Biden died in office.
Simmons did not tell Harris about the list before he left her team in January 2023, but he told colleagues to notify him right away if something happened to Biden because he had a communications strategy ready.
Despite the contingency planning, Democrats were seemingly caught off guard by Biden's meltdown during his only debate with Trump on CNN last summer.
Biden's presidency evaporated in 90 dramatic minutes as his cognitive deficiencies were laid bare on national television, sending his own party into a panic.
Until the fateful debate, Democrats vehemently denied that Biden was unfit for a second term. After Biden's disastrous performance, Democrats took a sharp pivot and eventually forced him to drop out. He endorsed Harris, who quickly won the backing of the party machine.
Democrats have partly blamed her decisive defeat to Trump on Biden and his reckless decision to seek another term, although Biden's health issues were obviously not a secret - certainly not to Democrats, who had the opportunity to watch him up close.
Days after the debate, Biden attended a fundraiser at the home of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D), where Democratic supporters observed an alarming scene.
Biden needed fluorescent tape to guide him through the house, "colorful bread crumbs [that] showed the leader of the free world where to walk."
