So to answer the question when we get asked in the future.

Do debates matter?

Yes, they can. Hello and welcome to this emergency reaction edition of the 538 Politics Podcast.

I'm Gailandruk and yes, President Joe Biden has just dropped out of the 2024 race. Because of the context, the context of

everything that has been, you know, that context, this is maybe not the most

shocking thing, but from a historical perspective it is big.

Regardless of the fact that it's a Sunday and that I was hanging out by the pool and

Jeffrey Skelly my man man, was out cycling.

We have convened quickly to react to this historical event

here with me is Senior Elections Analysts.

Jeffrey Skelly, welcome Jeffrey.

Hi Galen, this is the Emergency Podcasts of Emergency Podcasts, I would say.

Folks, we have been through a lot of history over the past eight and a half years on this

podcast, but the past month is really, really taking the cake in a lot of ways.

Jeffrey, I got a lot of questions, but to start out, what is your initial reaction?

And I know that you study history pretty closely,

particularly history of elections.

Can you place this for us in history?

I mean, it's really unprecedented. So the modern era of presidential

primaries and nominations runs back to the 1970s and nothing like this has

happened before where the presumptive nominee of a party withdrew

before the convention. I mean it hasn't happened after the convention either.

...