Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History – An Insider Account of the Presidential Election That Put American Democracy to the Test

by Chris Whipple

The New York Times bestselling author of The Gatekeepers and The Spymasters now turns his sharp eye towards the historic 2024 presidential race, providing the definitive, insider account of the most dramatic and significant political showdown in modern American history.

A disastrous debate, a would-be assassin’s bullet, an electrifying eleventh hour candidate swap, dramatic and surprising VP selections, betrayals behind closed doors, charges of a stolen election, game-changing blunders—the history-making 2024 presidential election is a political saga of Shakespearean proportions. In minute-by-minute detail, esteemed White House historian and political analyst Chris Whipple chronicles the unprecedented drama as it unfolds, documenting the true story of the Harris and Trump campaigns and the difficult, urgent decisions made in the back rooms of power, with the future of American democracy at stake.

Alternating between the Biden/Harris/Walz and the Trump/Vance camps, Whipple tells the fly-on-the-wall story of campaign 2024, drawing on his unique access to exclusive sources on both sides, including conversations with members of the candidates’ inner circles. Whipple goes behind the scenes of every headline-making moment to reveal how a post-debate intra-party rebellion forced Biden to step aside, how the nomination of Vice President Harris at a thrilling convention reshaped the race, how Harris rallied excited voters across generations and demographics, but ultimately could not overcome the underlying weaknesses of her campaign. Whipple also burrows inside Donald Trump’s campaign to reveal startling new insights into how he overcame primary opponents and multiple prosecutions, rebranded his base to appeal to Gen Z voters, and forged powerful alliances with Silicon Valley CEOs like Elon Musk.

An intimate portrait of American politics on the edge, filled with previously untold stories, anecdotes, and insights, Uncharted is the authoritative account of this pivotal chapter in American politics. As he brings to life the most dramatic and important presidential campaign of the modern age and puts it into historical perspective, Whipple exposes how ambition, conviction, and resilience collide at the highest echelons of power, offering a deeper understanding of the forces that define a divided nation.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, American History, Audiobook

240 pages, Hardcover

Published April 8, 2025

About the author

WHIPPLE is an acclaimed writer, journalist, documentary filmmaker, and speaker. A multiple Peabody and Emmy Award-winning producer at CBS’s 60 Minutes and ABC’s Primetime, he is the chief executive officer of CCWHIP Productions. Most recently, he was the executive producer and writer of Showtime’s The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs.

Reviews

[David LaBrot · Rating 1 out of 5]

Journalism at it’s worse

This book is so biased in its content, reading it is like trying to eat a melted hot-fudge sundae sprinkled with broken glass. Chris Whipple has no objectivity, his writing is sprinkled with falsehoods that any three year old could point out, not to mention his fawning over Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. A perfect example of leftist liberal Democrat justification journalism. Try reading “Fight”. Its objectivity is a much better read. Consign this terrible book to the dustbin of revisionist history. Don’t waste your time or your money. It’s unworthy of even one star!

[T Vidal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Biased.

It’s hard to stay interested in a political history book when the author is so blatantly biased —and childishly bitter—towards half of the players in the race. I read this one after reading the vastly superior ‘Fight’ by Jonathan Allen & Amie Parnes, whose authors were competent and confident enough to control their feelings about Trump.

Whipple is obviously not objective and therefore, not a true journalist. He’s corrupted and therefore cannot be a historian. He loves to paint Trump as whiny, short-sighted, bratty, and stops short of calling him a racist when comparing him to George Wallace and his almost-assassination. Lightly mocks Trump for crediting a higher power for saving his life, and Trump’s awe and reverence towards what he saw as a miracle. Drawing parallels that are an attempt at force-feeding the reader the false comparisons of Wallace’s racist segregation-loving supporters, to MAGA supporters. That’s when I finally rolled my eyes and gave up any attempt to learn from this book. Its perspective is tainted because the author is not a historian, but a propagandist. It’s too bad because that moment in time is a riveting one, and deserves to be covered by competent —and HONEST —journalists.

I recommend ‘Fight’ for an exciting, objective behind-the-curtain peek at one of the most amazing historical moments of our country. ‘Uncharted’ ain’t it.

[Tony Siciliano · Rating 2 out of 5]

This "inside story" of the 2024 election does not pretend to be fair or even-handed. Many of the comments are repeated over and over. The author repeats charges against the candidates that are either untrue or were proven wrong. Mercifully for the reader, it's a short read. A far better narration of the election can be found in "Fight: inside the wildest battle for the White House," by Jonathan Allen and Amy Parnes.

[Hollie Kochapski · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolute biased garbage. Don’t waste your time. Author repeats far debunked accusations and narratives. I was hoping for a balanced behind the scenes account of a complex and historic campaign but instead it was more lies and far left propaganda masquerading as fact - fooling and validating people who don’t know better and suffer from TDS. Too bad.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

This guy hates 47 and REALLY hates that he won..

Too biased to explain much. He calls Kampala Harris' campaign "flawless." I still don't know what she had in mind.

[Andrea C. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible. Anti-Trump rhetoric throughout. The author was biased against Trump. I just wanted to hear facts about the campaigns and not the authors opinions. The narrator was hard to listen to.

[Mary-Jo Lacey · Rating 1 out of 5]

is this fiction?

I wish the author could have toned down the anti-Trump rhetoric and told the story from an objective rather than subjective point of view. This book will be the first and only work of this writer for me.

[Ken Oder · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got suckered by the publicity about this book. I thought it would shed light on President Biden's mental condition prior to his failed debate performance based on insider information. It doesn't shed much new light on that or anything else. Whipple gained access to Ron Klain, Biden's former chief of staff who was in charge of Biden's debate preparation. Klain expressed shock at Biden's deterioration since Klain had left the White House the previous fall. These passages provide some insight on the reasons for Biden's failure in the debate, but there isn't much else in this book to elucidate the cognitive decline. Whipple also fails to provide anything new or interesting about the Trump or Harris campaigns. He gained access to Paul Manafort, but other than Manafort's opinions of the motivations of the electorate, his information provides little insight into the Trump campaign strategy. The other reviewers who criticize this book for bias are also accurate. It white washes the Harris campaign's shortcomings while attacking the Trump campaign's every maneuver as vile and evil. I could have endured Whipple's bias if he had provided any new information based on solid investigative journalism, but this book doesn't deliver on that score. Not worth the time.

[Butch · Rating 1 out of 5]

fair book

The narrative in the book does not fit the title of the book. It should have read more to the point of the author simply saying - “ I don’t like Trump and those people who voted for them and I am mad because my side didn’t win”

[David W. Cofer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I expected this book to be a fair and unbiased account of the recent 2024 Presidential election, written by a journalist with a fair, right down the middle approach. However, the author's extremely progressive, left-leaning, liberal attitude comes through page after page after page.

The story is accurately told, beginning with the Biden-Trump debate in which Biden melted down in front of millions of Americans when he uttered the now famous line, "We finally beat Medicare," when what he meant to say was that he beat Covid. The story ends with the election results and Trump's inauguration and Biden's last minute pardons for his family.

But in between, the book is filled with lies and miss-truths. Without evidence, the author accuses Trump of saying things he never said and praises Biden over and over. The author even called the election the "closest race in modern history." What??? Did we witness the same election? Trump won the popular vote. He won the electoral vote, and it was not even close. Trump won the swing states as well. How is that the "closest race in modern history"?

The author, like all of us, is entitled to his opinions. I don't care if he is a Biden supporter, a Trump supporter, or a supporter of neither candidate. But to let his personal bias show through so brightly so that he even makes up lies about Trump destroys any credibility he might have had prior to me reading the book.

[Lowell Mattox · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good start…then descent into partisan-speak

The strength of this book, the first half, is its thorough insights into the Biden campaign planning buildup and the transition to Harris. The roughly second half sadly degrades into replaying so much discredited Biden gaslighting along with the usual MSM-grade Trump bashing. I read “Fight!” also and found it more balanced and factual.

[Adria · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let me sum up this book: “A handful of well-meaning people clung to power a little too long, but you are still morally superior to Trump and his supporters, so take comfort in that.”

[Dustin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I honestly thought that this book was not going to be as biased as it was towards what actually happened, and regrettably got it the day of release. He almost lost me at the comments regarding Jen Psaki early on. What left me baffled, and still does, is that there are people within our government who encouraged and tried to hide the decline of Joe Biden to maintain what is slowly being proven to be power that wasn’t even exerted by him, and who were more than willing to put our country in jeopardy by allowing him to run again.

It blows my mind that George Stephanopoulos deceived the public in the way that he did, and still has a job while saying the parts that should have been said out loud quietly in the midst of this mess. This book basically showed me that there are no lows that some within the Democratic Party will not stoop to. Finding out later that such a large majority of documents “signed” by the sitting President had been signed by autopen later should scare the hell out of every American - including those that voted for him the first time. There were chapters that spoke volumes about Schumer, Jeffries, et. al. It’s nice to know we have people like George Clooney pulling political strings and practically controlling the media as well.

This book also explains the rumors as to why Jill is so pissed; there was work being done behind the scenes long before anyone realized to oust Biden. I can’t help but wonder if ‘ol Doug was riding something other than a bike when he got the call. I wonder if the pastor who was mysteriously called on speaker so everyone could hear was consulted before some of those dancers went on stage in Atlanta. The reason new voter registration spiked is because they issued more Social Security numbers to nine US citizens in 2024 than in history, so of course there was an expectation to win by a landslide. I rarely give books ratings this low. Don’t waste your time.

[thewanderingjew · Rating 1 out of 5]

Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History, Chris Whipple, author; Mark Bramhall, narrator I am speechless, because I expected this to be a book that represented both sides of the issue regarding the election of 2024, especially because of how dishonestly it is turning out the 2020 election was, with its lack of real investigation. Every day we are learning more and more about facts that were hidden that may have really influenced the election results, ultimately even possibly changing them. The event on January 6th was exaggerated and described falsely when one compares it to the protests of today and the Summer of Love in 2020 with the ridiculous description of “mostly peaceful”, being repeated now to describe massive violent protests against law enforcement, ICE, Israel and Jews. Criminals are being lauded while law enforcement is being demonized by the left. That is an oxymoron if ever there was one. So, although this was written by a man who self-describes as a Democrat operative, I thought that was all the more reason for him to be honest and fair in his analysis. Instead, this is simply a treatise on hating Trump. The book is inaccurate, some say filled with lies. I did find many untruths on the pages, and they were mentioned multiple times because the book is repetitive. Suffice it to say that this author has hypocritically found fault with the right, insulting anyone associated with MAGA and lauding the left and anyone associated with Democrats, even if he has to make up the facts. He obviously preferred an incompetent President and his incompetent Vice President to be elected, one way or another, as they might have been in 2020. I thought, how could any rational person promote someone who they knew was unfit for the position. They could because all they cared about was winning the election, even as they pretended to care more about the country then themselves, as Biden and Harris proclaimed. Whipple applauded their achievements, achievements that were the natural result of coming out of a pandemic, not the result of anything they did to improve the economy or jobs market, instead, they mandated masks and work at home, school closures and banned certain medical treatments leading to worsened conditions and the most inflation in years. I will just relate a few of the lies and insulting comments and descriptions. A comedian was mocked for saying something silly about Puerto Rico while the actual candidate was cheered for calling Trump a convicted felon and a threat to democracy. She had to know that the charges were created and the laws changed to “trump” up charge and to interfere in the election. Whipple referred to the supposed “insurrection” but never referred to the violence of the protesters on the left. He accused those on the 6th of being armed, though no arms were found, yet he made no mention of the armed protesters who killed Sheriff Dorn. We are now learning that fake driver’s licenses may have been distributed in 2020, by China, and the investigation was dismissed by Director Wray. There was no mention of the laptop liars or the stolen classified documents in Biden’s garage, and he did not object to the raid, actually an invasion of the home of a former President, which was election interference. Trump was only guilty of holding legally acquired classified documents longer than they decided he should have them. Both Clinton and Obama may still possess some documents, and Pence and Biden were excused though they had no way to even legally have them. Whipple even had the audacity to worry about Manafort’s million-dollar payment, but he made no mention of Obama/Biden’s shipment of millions in cash, to Iran, the results of that which we are witnessing today as Israel fights for its survival and Iran threatens the rest of the world with the weapons it used the money to develop. He did not condemn the way Biden was hidden from the public so they wouldn’t see his decline or inability to govern. He did not condemn the lies of the people who signed the document about the laptop. He did not condemn the lack of transparency of Biden’s entire administration and did not condemn, nearly enough, the Afghanistan fiasco. In short, he cherry- picked his information to make the Democrats look like angels and the Republicans, to look like demons. He never condemned the left’s rhetoric which has possibly led to attempted assassinations and actual murders, in some cases, but does what the left does best, accused Trump of inspiring bomb-threats. He does not address the unlawful way voting laws were changed that absolutely affected the election results of 2020. He does not mention that Biden got more absentee votes, but Trump got more in-person votes. That alone should cause to wonder. He does not address the disrespect shown to Trump, Pelosi ripping up his speech, Democrats walking out of his speeches, holding obscene signs and shouting out to disrupt his presentation. He praises the people of the Squad, insults the people who are MAGA, and uses descriptive words that are obviously meant to denigrate the one and elevate the other. Every word is skewed to do that. Harris is exquisite, trying to help everyone while Trump is described as a vicious, divisive MAGA leader. It is a fact that the Democrats control the message with most of the social media and Main Street Legacy Media, but that didn’t prevent Whipple from blaming the few Right Wing and alternate media sites that supported Trump, for Kamala’s loss and Biden’s negative approval. Why does he think there is Trump Derangement? The left’s media created it. They live in the Twilight Zone with fake polls and liars signing documents attesting to lies in order to promote their dogma. Harry Reid designed their strategy. He lied, they won; he was proud of it and they have decided to continue his legacy, blaming others consistently for everything they are actually doing that is shameful and even corrupt. The left accuses Trump of being racist, yet they insisted on someone of color to run with Biden, not someone qualified. They accuse him of being a misogynist, and they trashed men for being toxic. They accuse him of being xenophobic, yet his Vice President’s wife is from India. They accuse him of being antisemitic, yet his daughter converted to Judaism, his grandchildren are Jewish, and his son-in-law is orthodox. They said he would go after his enemies, but he didn’t, and they did. They charged him with anything they could make up and held the trials in venues in which he could never receive justice. Yes, Margaret, there are courts that are left-wing and there are judges that are that way too. We witness that daily as they sue every action he takes and peddle their suits to left wing justices. They are not interested in justice, just in winning. They say he changed the rules, yet the democrats and Biden not only changed them, they disobeyed them. Whipple made fun of Trump for waiting on stage while medics dealt with an emergency, as if he was just ignoring the crowds and standing there whiling away the time, as if he was like Biden when Biden freezes and stares into space. Democrats are not loyal. Obama, Clooney, Pelosi, et al, simply treated Biden the way they treat Fetterman, Musk, and Gabbard and the way they treated Lieberman. If you don’t march to their drummer, you don’t march. So, who are the dictators again? Are there any really virtuous Democrats? Whipple sums everything up saying Harris had a wonderful campaign, amazing funds to work with, and doesn’t fault her for buying her support or squandering over a billion dollars. To him, Harris was the happy warrior and Trump was the monster. That is how the democrats demonize him and it is their constant shameful message because they are the haters who go after their enemies, not Trump and not his supporters. He said Trump was weirdly cordial when Kamala conceded and of course she was perfect. It really got tiresome as he did nothing but reveal his own Trump Derangement Syndrome.

[Deborah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I stopped 2/3 of the way through when the author started harping about “Israel’s bloody siege on Gaza in response to the 10/7/23 attack by Hamas”, perpetuating lies like “tens of thousands of civilians had been killed and much of the population was starving”. No mention of WHY Israel fought back against Hamas. No mention of hostages. No mention of the fact that those alleged “tens of thousands” are a) Hamas reported numbers that have been reduced numerous times, b) include ALL palestinians killed, and c) at least half of them are terrorists who’d have happily killed more Israelis without even being asked, because that’s what they’re trained from childhood to do. Fuck this guy.

[Preacher · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author couldn't just tell the story of the election etc, he has to interject his personal opinion of President Trump into everything and it got quite annoying, to top it off i didn't learn anything new. Most if not all of what's in this book you could have learned from simply casually watching the news

[Maj · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's...fine. Not as detailed as the previous book I read on this race (Fight, published a week before this one), but competently written, if uneven. I've read two books by this author, and this one seems the sloppiest...kind of existing more as a product trying to capitalise on the moment than something that had to exist, but there were a few tidbits here and there that did add something new, (for me anyway).

But in parts it seemed to gloss over stuff, in parts it went on too much sort of needlessly (the conventions and rallies)...fine as a quick read but there already is one book out there that is better.

[Ron Jasinski · Rating 1 out of 5]

A failure to acknowledge why the Democrats won.

Everyone is to blame other than the candidate. The author makes no attempt to maintain an un-biased position. “Walz was called tampon Tim because of stand on female reproductive rights.” No, he was called that because he endorsed installing tampon dispensers in boys washrooms. According to the author the candidate and her staff ran a flawless campaign. More than a $1B spent, a lead coming out of the convention, and still a loss. But the campaign was flawless. Completely writes off Trump and this distills down to Joe Biden’s fault. Harris lost solely because of Harris. This book refuses to recognize that and simply put everyone else is to blame, including the American people. It hurts I guess when democracy doesn’t work in your favour. This book is poorly written as a piece of history but well executed as an excuse filled piece of fiction. Money not well spent, both by the Democratic Party and by me, for buying this book.

[Alex Dimaio · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book presents a one-sided account of the 2024 election, seemingly colored by the author’s disappointment with Trump’s victory. It leans heavily on discredited narratives from mainstream media while overlooking significant issues, such as the DNC’s history of manipulating primaries since 2008. The author neglects to mention RFK Jr.’s strong polling as a Democratic candidate—approaching 20%—before the DNC altered rules to block challenges to Biden. Similarly, there’s no discussion of Harris’s unpopularity or her limited campaign visibility, which mirrored Biden’s. Labeling all non-Harris supporters as “far-right” oversimplifies voter motivations and ignores widespread distrust in establishment narratives. Trump’s win reflects voters’ rejection of these dynamics, and Whipple would benefit from deeper, less biased research.

[Sko Buffs · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so looking forward to reading this book. Saw the snippets on the news and in the news, but right away it disappointed me. The author is 100% anti Trump and puts the same BS you see on MSNBC every single day in his book. The back cover calls him one of our greatest living historians, and that is just tragic. Historians can't have agenda's, and this guy does. He also cannot help but boast about things such as, "...they texted me this..." or "...they told me at a private dinner between us..."

Now he also dishes the dirt on Biden and Harris, but I mean both of them are so utterly incompetent it would be hard to write a book with them in the story and NOT write about how utterly dumb they are.

It took me weeks to read this book because I was so turned off. I am just glad I got it from the library and didn't spend a dime on it.

[Julie Rothenfluh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a very balanced look at the topic. When describing Trump taking his seat at the RNC convention, Whipple writes “He wore a self-satisfied expression, like a tribal king observing human sacrifice.” WHAT?!? And while he describes Paul Manafort as a shady character (with reason), Manafort seems to be a major source within the Trump campaign. Anyway, so far, Fight, by Jonathan Allen was much better. Now on to Original Sin, by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson.

[Steffanie H Burgevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still not getting it

After reading Andersons FIGHT this my conclusion is that Whipple still doesnt get it. Hes too biased to make a clear cut book on this election. Andersons book was more thorough and very much less biased. But neither of them really got to the truth of the matter. Only history and clearer heads will tell. Money and three very flawed people with too many silo thinkers in the background preyed upon a populace worn down by covid related mistakes and angry rhetoric.

[Dylan Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coming at this book as a political junkie who followed American politics very closely since about 2014, most of this book is a very high-level summary of the last decade of politics since Trump came down the escalator. About half of the book is this preamble and it really does drag. For someone coming to this with less of an obsessive eye than mine, it would probably be perfectly serviceable, but it was telling me a lot of things I already knew.

The last half of the book confirms what we all thought: Biden, while not brain dead, was severely diminished and this fact was kept from the American people until the last minute. It was only a pressure campaign from insiders that got him to step down.

I did think the insights into the Harris campaign were interesting and most aligned with what I thought. despite the electoral vote difference, it was a very close run campaign even with Harris' black hole charisma and a few changes could have flipped it.

Many reviewers here are bashing the book purely on partisan lines, and Whipple is not without bias, but it's a fairly even-handed account. All of the outrageous claims are backed up and verifiably true. Three stars because it largely was telling me things I already knew

[Boaz · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am embarrassed for Chris Whipple, who has given us an unserious , sophomoric book that seems as if written for a junior high school civics class by the sadly brainwashed child of two radical Berkeley professors. Nearly every single reference to Trump describes him hysterically as either a convicted felon or tyrant or would-be dictator or worse— as bad a case of TDS as I hve seen. Biden, on the other hand, is lauded for his Administration’s historic accomplishments and Harris is touted as a most wonderful, formidable successor to Biden. Was Whipple using this ridiculously biased work to prove his far far left bona fides to obtain a job on MSNBC?
I learned not one thing from this book, except that Harper Collins has no problem tarnishing its brand by publishing something that never should hsve seen the light of day.
.

[Eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book that explained a lot about the election and told a lot about campaigns in general. It doesn’t look like Suzie Wiles has prevented Trump from acting like a bull in a china shop though.

[Jean · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don’t waste your time reading this biased account. No deep investigative reporting and his fake news background shines through. Didn’t waste my time getting to the end. Meh…just like watching 60 Minutes or CNN; No thanks.

[Ziggy Coulson · Rating 1 out of 5]

A Missed Opportunity Wrapped in a Misguided Narrative

Chris Whipple’s *Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History* is yet another example of how deeply out of touch mainstream liberal commentators remain with the pulse of the American electorate. Billed as a definitive account of a wild political upset, Whipple's book is less an exploration of the forces that propelled Donald Trump back into power and more a rehash of tired, dismissive tropes that have come to define liberal punditry in the post-2016 era.

The most glaring flaw is Whipple’s persistent framing of Trump voters as confused, angry, or misled rather than thoughtful individuals responding to very real economic, cultural, and political failures. In Whipple's world, every win by Trump must be explained away as a fluke of circumstance, media manipulation, or voter ignorance—never as a consequence of the systemic rot and arrogance that has plagued the establishment political class for decades.

The book struggles mightily to offer any genuine insight into why Biden and Harris failed to inspire a broad coalition of voters, instead focusing on internal campaign missteps and personality clashes. This approach ignores the elephant in the room: the Democratic Party’s inability to connect with working-class Americans, rural communities, and even many independents who feel abandoned by both parties. Whipple’s analysis falls flat because it clings to a false narrative that these voters are the problem—not the ignored middle America they represent.

The author’s tone is often smug, cloaked in the thin veneer of journalistic objectivity. Whipple claims to offer a “behind-the-scenes” look, but what we get feels more like selective access journalism filtered through an ideologically narrow lens. This book doesn’t seek to understand why Trump resonated; it seeks to rationalize how he won *in spite* of everything—yet again proving that liberals just don’t get it.

In the end, *Uncharted* is not a bold new take on the political landscape; it’s a reiteration of the same echo chamber logic that helped create the conditions for Trump’s rise in the first place. Instead of learning from past mistakes, Whipple doubles down on a narrative that comforts the elite but alienates the people whose voices most need to be heard.

If you're looking for an honest reckoning with what happened—and why—this isn’t the book for you. It’s just another example of how mainstream commentary continues to miss the mark in historic fashion.

[Greg Kopstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

Touted as another tell-all, behind the scenes reporting of the Biden-Harris mid-election transition, I picked it up because of the promise of an expose. The news anchors, especially on Fox, are all saying how much it exposes. It doesn’t. There’s nothing novel nor scandalous in this. Honestly, it’s written “just ok”. I found it annoying and confusing how the author zig zags through the cast of characters between 2016, 2020, and 2024. There was no rhyme nor reason for it and it detracted from what little there was here. I think, quite honestly, it was filler. First (or…second…) to publish wins the prize money, and I suspect that was the motive here.

It was ok, but not one I’d recommend. It was unbiased, which I appreciated. I recommend Fight, by Jon Allen instead. Much stronger and more interesting.

This is my 3rd Biden book. Though oddly enough, the second about the 2024 election itself, which may say something about how uninteresting the Biden White House between 2020-2024 is to journalists… something to keep an eye on.

Comparatively, there are at least 50 about Trump’s first term, and I’ve read 30 of them.


Others:
Fight, Allen
War, Woodward

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chris Whipple is an amazing investigator and writer!

Eye opening, to say the least. I had no idea that Biden was in that bad a shape, and fiercely wanted this brilliant woman of color to win. I'm horrified by the pettiness and inherent cruelty of Trump and his inner circle. I feel grateful to Chris Whipple for his exhaustive research and even hand. All his books are amazing; this inner was written in virtually real time, not *just* analyzing issues and people from the past, and that, to me, makes it even more of an achievement.

[Nick Fowkes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I probably lean closer to a 2.5 star on this one. I was looking for a book that gave a play by play rundown with a little behind the scenes of the 2024 election. I got that, but with what felt like an obnoxious amount of bias littered throughout the book. For that reason, I couldn’t give it anything more than 2 stars.