WASHINGTON − What a year.
Who would have guessed, 12 long months ago, that voters on Tuesday would be casting ballots for Vice President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, with President Joe Biden − the biggest vote-getter in American history − on the sidelines and headed for retirement?
Who could have foreseen the failed assassin’s bullet that narrowly missed killing Trump at a rally in deep red western Pennsylvania, or that another alleged would-be killer would be caught after staking out the former president’s Palm Beach golf course for 12 hours undisturbed?
It’s been a year of courtroom drama, violent rhetoric, and shocking debates.
With voters lining up at the polls, here are the highs and lows of the craziest, closest presidential campaign in memory.
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November 2023
November 5: Trump erupts at the judge and prosecutors during a New York civil trial where he’s accused of inflating the value of his assets – including the size of his own penthouse apartment – for better terms on loans. Polls show Trump leading President Biden in five swing states.
Nov. 6: Obama campaign guru David Axelrod says Biden should drop out of the 2024 race. The suggestion isn’t well received.
Nov. 13: Trump calls his opponents “vermin,” drawing comparisons with Adolph Hitler and Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini.
Nov. 16: An NBC News poll shows Biden trailing Trump among younger voters.
Nov. 17: The White House slams House Republicans over efforts to impeach Biden. After months of bluster, the inquiry later fizzles.
December
December 3: Trump, who was indicted in October on federal charges he illegally tried to overturn his 2020 election loss, lashes out at President Biden, claiming the indictment is itself election interference. Trump will face four criminal indictments.
Dec. 5: Trump says he’ll be dictator if reelected, but “only on Day One.”
Dec. 7: Hunter Biden is indicted on federal tax charges in California. He will also face gun charges in Delaware.
Dec. 16: Trump says U.S. immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Dec. 18: Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin expresses alarm at Trump’s support in the GOP primaries.
Dec. 20: The Colorado Supreme Court tosses Trump from the state’s GOP primary ballot on the grounds he engaged in insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, and in his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss. The U.S. Supreme Court later quashes that decision and other attempts to keep Trump off the ballot.
Dec. 21: Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani files for bankruptcy after a jury fined him with more than $148 million for defaming two Georgia election workers who he falsely accused of fraud in the 2020 election.
Dec. 27: Republican candidate Nikki Haley omits slavery when answering a question about the cause of the Civil War.
January 2024
Jan. 6: Trump calls on Biden to release Jan. 6 rioters convicted or awaiting trial over the 2021 Capitol riot, describing them as hostages.
Jan. 10: Trump, well ahead in polls, skips the last GOP debate before the Iowa Caucuses. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie drops out of the Republican presidential primary with a stark warning about the dangers of a second Trump presidency.
Jan. 15: Trump wins the Iowa Caucuses and Vivek Ramaswamy drops out of the race.
Jan. 20: Trump confuses Nikki Haley for Nancy Pelosi while discussing security of the U.S. Capitol before the Jan.6 Capitol riots.
Jan. 21: Florida Gov. Ron Desantis drops out of the Republican primary.
Jan. 23: Joe Biden wins the New Hampshire primary through a write-in campaign, after a dispute kept him off the ballot, Donald Trump also clinches victory.
February
February 6: Republican voters in Nevada choose “None of these candidates” over Nikki Haley in the state’s GOP primary. Trump later wins the GOP-run caucus, which the party uses to award delegates.
Feb. 10: Special Counsel Robert Hur releases report on Biden’s handling of classified documents that portrays the president as an elderly man with “diminished capacities,” including memory loss.
Feb. 12: Fulton County DA Fani Willis delivers dramatic testimony about her romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she hired to oversee Trump’s Georgia election fraud case. Wade later resigns.
Feb. 16: Trump is hit with a $453.5 million civil judgement for overvaluing his real estate. Sen. Manchin says he won’t launch a third-party presidential bid after months of toying with the idea.
Feb. 20: The Alabama Supreme Court rules embryos created during in-vitro fertilization are legally protected as children, putting IVF at the center of campaign debates about reproductive rights.
Feb. 27: More than 100,000 Michigan Democratic voters selected “uncommitted” instead of Joe Biden in the swing state’s Democratic primary over anger with his handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
March
March 5: Trump and Biden win most of the Republican and Democratic Super Tuesday primaries – though Biden ties for first in American Samoa, and Trump loses in Vermont.
March 6: Haley drops out of the GOP primaries, leaving Trump the guaranteed Republican nominee. On the Democratic side, Rep. Dean Phillips drops his long shot challenge to Biden.
March 7: Biden delivers a fiery, lashing State of the Union address that leaves supporters overjoyed and Republicans sore.
March 17: Trump begins escalating violent campaign rhetoric, telling voters at an Ohio rally that the nation would face a “bloodbath” if he loses the election.
March 26: Trump and country music star Lee Greenwood start selling “God Bless the USA” Bibles, reportedly made in China, for $60 apiece. Trump later unveils $399 gold sneakers and a $99 cologne.
April
April 4: Nonprofit group No Labels drops effort to launch a third-party “unity” ticket.
April 8: Trump says abortion policies should be up to individual states, a major pivot on reproductive rights. He previously supported a national ban past 20-weeks.
April 15: Trump’s criminal trial begins on charges he faked business records to hide hush money payments to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
April 23: Former Rep. George Santos ends comeback bid more than five months after he was expelled from Congress.
April 25: Trump is named an unindicted co-conspirator in Arizona fake election scheme charges.
April 27: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Trump VP hopeful, comes under fire for detailing her decision to shoot a family dog and including a false anecdote about meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in her memoir.
May
May 5: Trump reportedly compares the Biden administration to Nazi secret police at a GOP retreat, saying Biden is “running a Gestapo administration.”
May 6: A USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll slows Trump and Biden tied, 37% to 37%, among Black, Hispanic younger voters.
May 16: The New York Times reports Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito flew flags associated with false claims the 2020 election was stolen at two of his homes. Alito says his wife raised the flags.
May 20: Democrats accuse Trump of freezing after he took a 30-second pause during a speech at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting.
May 22: Nikki Haley says she will vote for Trump after calling him a “disaster,” “unhinged” and “unsafe” during the primaries.
May 30: Trump is found guilty on all 34 felony counts by a jury in his historic New York hush money trial. He’s the first former U.S. president ever convicted of a felony.
June
June 4: Hunter Biden goes on trial on federal gun charges. Testimony detail years of heavy drug abuse, and he is found guilty a week later.
June 13: The Supreme Court dismisses a challenge to the abortion drug mifepristone two years after overturning Roe v. Wade.
June 25: Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., is first of the progressive group of lawmakers known as “the squad” to lose a primary. Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., later suffers a similar defeat.
June 27: Biden freezes and speaks haltingly during a disastrous debate with Trump, sparking panic among Democrats and glee in the GOP.
June 28: Biden strongly rejects calls to drop out, saying he knows “how to do this job.”
July
July 1: The Supreme Court rules presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for “official” acts they take in office in case over whether Trump can be tried for efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The case is returned to the trial judge to parse his official and unofficial acts.
July 2: After Kristi Noem’s debacle, a second dog makes headlines. A photo surfaces of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posing with the barbequed remains of a dog in South Korea decades ago. Kennedy is also accused of sexual assault.
July 10: Democratic lawmakers begin publicly urging Biden to exit the 2024 race.
July 14: Trump survives an assassination attempt at his Butler, Pa. rally days before the Republican National Convention. One person, firefighter Corey Comperatore, is killed and two others are wounded. Iconic images of a bloodied Trump raising his fist to the crowd become a staple of Trump rallies.
July 15: Trump announces Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, as his running mate on Day One of a rousing Republican National Convention. Biden is home in Delaware, isolated with Covid-19.
July 17: Leading Democratic lawmakers begin urging Biden to quit the race.
July 21: Biden drops out and endorses Vice President Kamala Harris.
July 31: Trump attends the National Association of Black Journalists annual convention and doubles down on comments about immigrants stealing “Black jobs” and questioned Harris’ ethnicity.
August
Aug. 2: Harris is the first Black woman and Asian American nominated to the top of a major party presidential ticket.
Aug. 6: Harris picks Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a former high school football coach, as her running mate.
Aug. 19: The Democratic National Convention begins with Biden passing the torch to Harris.
Aug. 23: Kennedy drops his third-party presidential bid and endorses Trump.
Aug. 27: Special counsel Jack Smith secures new election interference indictment, distinguishing Trump’s private actions from his public duties in light of the Supreme Court’s June decision
Aug. 31: Pop supergroup ABBA asks Trump to stop playing their music at his rallies.
September
Sept. 4: Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., endorses Harris, calling Trump a threat to democracy. Her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, endorses Harris several days later.
Sept. 10: Harris and Trump face off in their first and only debate. Trump amplifies baseless rumors of Haitian migrants eating pets Ohio. Trump later refuses to debate again. Pop superstar Taylor Swift endorses Harris.
Sept. 15: Trump says he hates Taylor Swift.
Sept. 16: An alleged assassin targets Trump at his golf course in Florida, but never fires a shot. The incident marks the second attempt on Trump’s life in a matter of months.
Sept. 18: The International Brotherhood of Teamsters declines to endorse a candidate due to divisions among members.
Sept. 22: Trump says 2024 is his last campaign.
Sept. 30: Hurricane Helene barrels into North Carolina and Georgia, wreaking havoc. Trump and Harris spend days touring storm-ravaged regions and rallying voters.
October
Oct. 1: Vance and Walz spar in a vice presidential debate heavy on policy.
Oct. 3: An unsealed court filing reveals Trump said “Who cares?” during the Jan. 6 insurrection when informed his vice president, Mike Pence, was being evacuated from the Capitol.
Oct. 5: Trump returns to Butler, Pa., the site of the first assassination attempt against him.
Oct. 20: Elon Musk, a prominent Trump surrogate and the wealthiest man on Earth, promises to give away $1 million each day to one randomly chosen swing state voter who signs his America PAC petition.
Oct. 22: Trump’s former chief of staff and Homeland Security secretary, John Kelly, tells the New York Times that Trump made admiring statements about Adolf Hitler on multiple occasions and met the definition of a fascist.
Oct. 27: Controversy abounds after Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, as comedian Tony Hinchcliffe calls Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” Other speakers at the event described Democrats as “a bunch of degenerates.” Puerto Rican megastar Bad Bunny endorses Harris.
Oct. 29: Biden calls Trump supporters “garbage” when addressing Hinchcliffe’s Puerto Rico remarks. His comments receive swift backlash from Democrats and Republicans.
November
Nov. 2: A shock Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll shows Harris three points ahead of Trump in the solid red state. Harris’ lead is driven by older women voters and women independents.
Nov. 3: Trump escalates violent rhetoric, suggesting at a Pennsylvania rally that an assassin would have to shoot through the news media to hit him. “I don’t mind that,” he says.
Nov. 4: A Marist poll shows Harris with a four percentage point national lead over Trump. She leads Trump 51% to 47%. according to the poll. Swing state polls remain tight.
Nov. 5: Election Day.
