Full of Suprises!
The 2024 election was full of surprises! At first it felt like it was going to be the most boring election in modern times. Two old foes face off once again. Candidates that we already knew. No skeletons to drag out of their closets. No October surprises. State by state the voters chose the same old candidates – Biden and Trump. Until CNN invited them both to a debate in June. The debate laid bare Biden’s old age. He struggled to talk as long as the time allotted. His answers meandered. He lost his train of thought. It was obvious that he wasn’t up to the task. Afterwards everyone headed to the CNN spin room and Biden supporters said it was a great performance. But everyone knew that it wasn’t.
Just two weeks later a lone gunman took a shot at President Trump in Butler, PA. That certainly wasn’t on my election bingo card. I was away on vacation with my husband when the call came in. It was late on a Saturday night and we had to do special coverage on Sunday night. We put together great shows to talk about this new twist in the election. The next day Republicans gathered for their national convention and Trump was hailed as an American hero.
The next weekend Biden caught COVID. His momentum was gone. Trump felt unstoppable. And Biden dropped out of the race. This was unprecedented. Again we at CNN put together Sunday night special coverage as Kamala Harris made over 100 phone calls to rally her supporters. By the next day it seemed inevitable that Kamala Harris would be the new democratic nominee.
When election night came nobody knew what to expect. Polling showed a dead heat. And CNN staffed four shifts so that we could do 24 hours of coverage “as long as it took to announce the next President.” As the night went on state by state turned red on the map and Trump crept closer to the magic number of 270. Our team was #2 and we didn’t even go on the air until the election was called for Trump. By the time the rest of the world woke up we had a new President.
CNN had been there for every twist and turn. From the CNN debate that started the Biden exit to special Sunday coverage of the assassination attempt and Biden’s exit from the race, our team was at the forefront. We could never have guessing the outcome but I am proud of our coverage!