Politically speaking, 2024 has been a long and exhausting year. A tumultuous presidential race exacerbated the country’s deep political divisions as threats of violence loomed over the election. Fears about the economy and the state of democracy intensified. Politicians promoted conspiracy theories about the weather, about immigrants, about the election’s being “rigged.”
Here are some of the biggest political headlines from the year that you might’ve already wished you’d forgotten.
Trump becomes first former president convicted of felony crimes
In May, Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts in his New York hush money trial and earned the title of first former president to be criminally convicted at trial.
Since then, his lawyers have repeatedly tried to overturn his conviction, including accusing a juror of misconduct and trying unsuccessfully to move the case to federal court.
Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority in July handed Trump a gift, ruling he has presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for some of his acts in office. President Joe Biden criticized the ruling at the time as “a terrible disservice to the people of this nation.”
Both of Trump’s federal criminal cases have been dismissed in the wake of his election win.
Biden’s disastrous debate
Biden’s stumbling performance at his first and only debate against Trump effectively halted his political career in its tracks. Calls for him to step down from the Democratic ticket began as soon as the debate ended. After a few agonizing weeks of defiance, the president, then 81 years old, announced he was withdrawing from the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the top of the ticket.
After Trump’s election win, some Democrats blamed the stinging loss on Biden for withdrawing so late in the game, preventing the party from having a proper primary campaign. Biden nevertheless continued to maintain that he could have defeated Trump had he finished the campaign.
The attempts to assassinate Trump
Trump was the target of two attempted assassinations during the campaign. The first happened in July as he delivered a speech at a Pennsylvania rally. A shooter fired several rounds at Trump and into the crowd, grazing Trump’s ear and killing a rally-goer. Secret Service agents then surrounded the former president and rushed him from the podium. The sight of Trump bleeding from the ear, his fist raised in the air, was hailed as a defining image of his candidacy.
In September, there was a second attempt on Trump’s life at his golf course in Florida, but he was not injured. A suspect, Ryan Routh, was later arrested. Routh has pleaded not guilty to five federal charges, including attempting to assassinate a presidential candidate.
Kamala Harris memes
Harris’ presidential campaign took off in August by capitalizing on a wave of online content about the inherently meme-able vice president.
Driven by a surge of enthusiasm among young Democrats for her candidacy — and fueled by pop star Charli XCX’s declaring that “kamala IS brat” — the Harris campaign fully embraced the memes as it sought to win over younger voters. But that ultimately did not translate into real votes: NBC News’ exit polling showed that Trump picked up more voters under 30 than any other Republican presidential candidate since 2008.
The richest man in the world had one of the most significant ascents in U.S. politics this year, pouring his wealth into helping Trump get elected. Musk spent more than a quarter-billion dollars to boost Trump’s chances in the election, and he has since used his platform X to assert his influence over Trump’s administration picks. More recently, through his social media account, Musk pressured House Republicans to tank a spending bill that would have funded the federal government for three more months. His spending bill antics led to intense criticism, and some Democrats have started calling him a “shadow president.” Gaetz’s political fortunes suffered serious whiplash in the weeks following Trump’s win. Gaetz easily won re-election to the House from Florida this year. Just days later, Trump announced Gaetz as his attorney general pick, and he immediately resigned from Congress. That move effectively ended a House Ethics Committee probe into sexual misconduct allegations, in which Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing. Democrats and some Senate Republicans were still intent on seeing the committee report, and amid the heightened scrutiny, Gaetz withdrew from consideration to be attorney general and said he would not join the next Congress. The report was nevertheless made public on Dec. 23 after the committee secretly voted earlier in the month to release it. Gaetz has since joined the website Cameo, charging hundreds of dollars to make personalized videos. He is also set to host a political talk show on the right-wing One America News Network next year. Where to begin with Kennedy? During his failed presidential bid this year, reports emerged that he once claimed a worm ate part of his brain, that he was behind the mysterious dumping of a bear carcass in Central Park in New York City in 2014 and that he did not eat a barbecued dog. Kennedy was also accused of sexual assault by a woman he once hired to babysit his children; asked about her allegations, Kennedy declined to comment but added that he had a “very, very rambunctious youth.” Kennedy dropped out of the race in August and immediately endorsed Trump, a decision that has paid off so far: Unless more details from his past emerge during his Senate confirmation hearings, the renowned anti-vaxxer — who has blamed mass shootings on anti-depressants and said chemicals in the water supply have led more minors to identify as transgender — is poised to take over as health and human services secretary.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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