▶ Watch Video: Jan. 6, Trump assassination attempt, Biden drops out – The timeline of the 2024.
CBS News projected early Wednesday that Donald Trump will be the president-elect, ending a wild and unprecedented 2024 presidential race.
From President Biden’s sudden exit, Vice President Kamala Harris’ late entry and two assassination attempts against Trump, the path to this Election Day was historic and unpredictable.
Here are some key moments from the campaign:
Trump was found guilty in May 2024 of 34 felonies by the jury in his hush money trial in New York City, becoming the first former American president in history to be convicted of a crime. He was convicted on allegations of falsifying business records in an effort to hide a $130,000 payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election.
Trump has denied the charges and maintained his innocence. Addressing the trial after the verdict came down, Trump called the situation “very unfair” and “rigged.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had entered the race fresh off a nearly 20-point victory in the Florida’s governor’s race in 2020, and had looked like the future for the party. But he ended his Republican presidential campaign ahead of the New Hampshire primary in January, following his significant loss to Trump in the Iowa caucuses.
Hours after winning just one state — Vermont — on Super Tuesday, the last remaining Republican in the race, former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, suspended her campaign. Her dropping out cleared the path for Trump to get the nomination. Exit polls showed Trump leading Haley among broad segments of the GOP electorate, with voters saying immigration and the economy were their most important issues.
Haley stopped short of endorsing Trump, and later when asked by Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation” if she thought Trump was a “good candidate,” Haley replied, “I think he is the Republican nominee.”
Mr. Biden struggled through the first presidential debate against Trump in June, speaking in a hoarse voice and at times appearing to lose his train of thought while answering questions. Officials in Mr. Biden’s camp later attributed the president’s lackluster performance to a cold, which they said he’d had for several days, but Americans and some party and government leaders questioned whether the debate was a sign the 81-year-old politician would not be fit enough to serve a second term.
While Mr. Biden faced mounting pressures to end his reelection campaign after the debate, there was another startling turn of events as Trump was shot while speaking to a crowd of supporters from the podium of his July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The assassination attempt against the former president left him with a graze wound to his ear, and killed one spectator at the rally and critically injured two others as Secret Service agents quickly rushed Trump from the stage. The incident led the director of the Secret Service to resign from her post amid questions about security failures.
Mr. Biden announced his decision to drop out of the presidential race on July 21, and endorsed Harris for the Democratic nomination.
“While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for my term,” he posted in a statement on social media. “My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made.
