And it is impossible to recall the ex-president’s wild path to election day without that moment, which created another iconic image and almost stopped the fight altogether.
When Trump was shot and killed by a would-be assassin in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, it shook this race and this nation deeply. As Secret Service agents helped him to his feet, bleeding from his ear, he raised his fist in the air and urged his supporters to fight.
When he appeared just 48 hours later at his party’s convention in Milwaukee with a piece of gauze over his ear, some in the crowd cried. I saw tears rolling down the face of one delegate standing next to me. It was Tina Ioane, who flew in from American Samoa.
“He’s the anointed one,” she told me. “He was called to lead our nation.”
At that stage in the summer election, Trump looked unassailable.
Democrats, on the other hand, grew increasingly depressed about their own prospects. Deeply concerned that their candidate, Joe Biden, is too old to win re-election.
I was in the press room watching his boring debate against Trump in late June. There was stunned silence as we watched Biden’s 50-year career in politics essentially end before our eyes.
But even then, many who publicly suggested he step aside were rejected. Biden’s campaign even hit back at the “enucrete brigade” that called for him to step down.
Of course, it would only be a matter of time.
Just days after a jubilant Republican convention in July, when Trump looked as if he couldn’t lose, Biden announced he was dropping his re-election bid. The mood among Democratic supporters soon shifted from anxious pessimism to excited anticipation.
Any reservations they had about whether Kamala Harris was their best candidate were erased at a jubilant convention in Chicago a few weeks later. People who had resigned themselves to defeat were now swept away by a wave of enthusiasm.
“These elections have become a chance to ‘overcome the bitterness, cynicism and conflicts of the past,'” she said to loud cheers.
But this burst of excitement did not last. After the initial hit in the polls, Harris struggled to maintain momentum. It turns out that she quickly won back traditional Democrats who did not support Biden, but they had a harder time winning over important undecided voters.
