Revealed — Unbelievable Document That Shows How 'Sleepy' Joe Biden Defied Warnings and Demanded Doomed CNN Debate With Donald Trump
Joe Biden was prepped for the CNN debate against Donald Trump, but what followed was a complete failure.
July 7 2025, Published 1:00 p.m. ET
Joe Biden ensured his CNN debate with Donald Trump went off without any chaos or commotion, but that's all viewers saw in a showdown that's memorable for all the wrong reasons, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
In a shocking document, the former president's senior advisers pushed for him to debate Trump much earlier than the Commission on Presidential Debates had proposed, a decision that led Biden to exit the race and give way to Kamala Harris.
Did Biden's Team Fail Him?
Biden's trusted advisors encouraged him to take on Trump in a debate much earlier than expected.
In the memo, obtained by journalists Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf, for their new book, 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America, Biden was encouraged by his trusted staff to go head-to-head with Trump way before the autumn dates that were recommended.
"By holding the first debate in the spring, YOU will be able to reach the widest audience possible," the document, dated April 15, 2024, read. "Before we are deep in the summer months with the conventions, Olympics, and family vacations taking precedence."
It continued: "In addition, the earlier YOU are able to debate the better, so that the American people can see YOU standing next to Trump and showing the strength of YOUR leadership, compared to Trump’s weakness and chaos."
A Debate Debacle
The debate was a failure for Biden, showing voters his age had caught up to him.
The document also noted to Biden: "While there is no perfect time to schedule the debate, we have identified an ideal spring window to debate in late June, which will allow for extensive preparation to be built into YOUR schedule."
Biden, 82, and Trump, 79, did end up battling it out on CNN on June 27, but the Democratic candidate completely flubbed the assignment in an embarrassing display.
At one point, Biden seemed to lose the plot while defending his record on border security, as former reality star Trump responded: "I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said, either."
Biden also failed to convince voters that his age wasn't a big issue, as he instead stumbled over his words, didn't state his points clearly, and missed various opportunities to hit back at Trump.
Before the debate took place, Biden's team laid out a plan to prepare him to hop into the arena with the controversial Trump.
"We would recommend three parts for YOUR debate prep plan beginning now and continuing through the full debate series," the memo to Biden read.
The document suggested Biden "practice at different opportunities with ongoing press and radio engagements, questions and answer sessions as part of pre-planned campaign endorsements, and more formal activities like a campaign-taped town hall..."
Biden Was Done For
Biden's debate performance with the first large domino to fall which led to his exit from the race.
According to Dawsey, this memo is just one piece of research he and his co-authors were able to get their hands on while researching their book.
"We have obtained internal memos, audio recordings, contemporaneous notes, and other pieces of firsthand source material from both parties," he explained. "We talked to both Trump and Biden. And we conducted more than 350 interviews."
Before and after the debate, there appeared to be several signs Biden was falling apart, as his party is said to have done all they could to cover up his deteriorating state.
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Kamala Harris would take over for Biden, ultimately losing to Trump in November.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Biden Administration launched a years-long cover-up in an attempt to hide his mental health, including hiring the leader of the free world a vocal coach, canceling meetings on his "bad days," and even assigning other officials to roles usually occupied by the president.
CNN notable Jake Tapper, also touched on Biden's mental state in his new book, Original Sin, co-written with Axios correspondent Alex Thompson.
