Overview

• In July 2025, Wall Street Journal reporter Josh Dawsey, New York Times correspondent Tyler Pager and Washington Post journalist Isaac Arnsdorf published “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America.”
• Pager obtained Biden’s personal cellphone number on March 25, 2025, and secured two unscripted calls with the former president for the book.
• After the initial interviews, furious aides called and texted Pager before blocking his number and replacing Biden’s voicemail with a Verizon disconnection notice.
• Senior staff prevented Biden from meeting campaign pollsters and fed him overly optimistic assessments following a disastrous debate performance.
• When pollsters warned that Biden had no viable path to victory and voters doubted his fitness, counselor Steve Ricchetti rebuked them for failing to offer a winning strategy.