SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
We got used to a certain word this summer. Unprecedented. Sure, it's been in style and been pretty accurate for a lot of the politics of the past decade, but we have never seen a political summer like the summer of 2024. It started in late May...
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DETROW: Former President Donald Trump has been found guilty on 34 felony counts - the charge, falsifying business records in the first degree.
...When a New York jury found former President Donald Trump guilty on criminal charges tied to his 2016 campaign for president. Never in American history has a former president or a major presidential nominee but found guilty on criminal charges. And yet, over the next month, Trump would grow stronger and stronger in his repeat bid for the White House. First came the late June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden. It was unprecedented as well. Biden stumbled. He trailed off. His mouth hung open for long chunks of time.
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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the - with the COVID - excuse me - with dealing with everything we have to do with - look. If - we finally beat Medicare...
DETROW: To many voters and many other Democratic officials, Biden just seemed too old, painfully old, for another term. Party leaders like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pressured him to do something - and, yep, here's that word again - unprecedented - to step aside, despite the fact the convention was weeks away and the primary season had already run its course.
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NANCY PELOSI: It's up to the president to decide if he is going to run. We're all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short.
DETROW: As this played out, Trump scored legal win after legal win. The Supreme Court granted broad criminal immunity for actions taken by sitting presidents. The decision effectively froze two of Trump's criminal cases, and meanwhile, the third criminal case awaiting trial would be dismissed weeks later.
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JONATHAN KARL: This is an absolute win for Donald Trump. This effectively grants Donald Trump blanket immunity because it makes it impossible for a trial to go forward, either in the classified documents case and the January 6 case.
DETROW: And then came July 13. On the eve of a convention that would nominate Trump for a third election in a row, the emboldened candidate held a rally in Butler, Pa.
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DONALD TRUMP: Take a look at what happened...
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DETROW: We are bringing you some breaking news right now. Former President Donald Trump was just rushed off the stage during a rally in Butler, Pa. Trump appears to have been injured, based on video footage of the rally. Video shows him bleeding from the ear as Secret Service led him to his SUV. A would-be assassin had climbed onto a nearby roof and fired several shots at Trump and the crowd with an AR-15. One of the bullets grazed Trump's ear.
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TRUMP: If I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin's bullet would have perfectly hit its mark, and I would not be here tonight. We would not be together.
DETROW: As has been the case throughout history, the failed assassination attempt seemed to make Trump politically stronger.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: And then we saw President Trump get up. You could see the blood on his ear. He was he was clearly shaken but enthusiastic and kind of indicating to everybody he was OK.
DETROW: The images of Trump's defiant raised fist instantly became iconic. Then, less than 48 hours later, federal Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, threw out the federal criminal case centered around classified documents Trump allegedly took with him after he left the White House and refused to return to the government. The criminal case, viewed by many as the most open-and-shut prosecution in terms of the hard evidence, was gone. In a matter of weeks, Trump seemed to have escaped all three serious remaining criminal cases he was facing. And, by the way, sentencing had been delayed in that New York case.
At the Republican convention, Trump and running mate JD Vance seemed unbeatable, especially with so many Democrats doubting Biden. It felt like a coronation. But then came another weekend news bombshell.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: President Joe Biden has just announced that he is dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: President Biden has just announced that he is ending his reelection bid.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: ...News for today. President Biden withdrawing from the 2024 race, stepping off of the ticket and endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris.
DETROW: Biden was out, and Vice President Kamala Harris quickly consolidated support from party leaders. Harris had had an-at times rocky vice presidency. Many Democrats had doubted her political strengths, but she quickly leaned into her prosecutor past.
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VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump's type.
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DETROW: By late July, Harris took charge and took off.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Her campaign reports it has raised more than $100 million since President Biden stepped aside on Sunday and endorsed her.
DETROW: She and her campaign were suddenly viral.
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HARRIS: You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? (Laughter) You exist in the context...
DETROW: And quickly, the inevitable Trump second term didn't feel so inevitable. Trump struggled and flailed, resorting to racist attacks.
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TRUMP: She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn't know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black.
DETROW: With Trump reverting to his old ways, Democrats found a new mantra.
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TIM WALZ: These guys are just weird.
DETROW: Thanks to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a man who quickly found himself on the Democratic ticket as Harris's running mate. By late August, against all odds, Democrats were gathering at their convention feeling just as optimistic as the Republicans had a few weeks earlier.
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HARRIS: In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man.
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HARRIS: But the consequences - but the consequences - of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.
DETROW: So here we are. Labor Day weekend. Biden is gone, replaced with Harris. Trump's main storyline has changed from convicted felon to would-be political martyr to runaway front-runner to flailing and unfocused. Special counsel Jack Smith has submitted filings to get the two federal criminal cases against Trump moving again, and polls show Harris with narrow leads nationally as well as in many of the key swing states. There are 66 days left until Election Day and another debate less than two weeks away, certainly more time for more unprecedented political news. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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