This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.

Nearly a year ago, last June, we sat down to watch the presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

It was the first and only debate, and it was

moderated by Jake Tapper and Dana Bash of CNN. Biden struggled to complete sentences,

to remember facts. At times, he made no sense at all. He spoke in a raspy whisper.

Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've

been able to do with the COVID, excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with,

look, if we finally beat Medicare.

Biden had been elected as the oldest person ever to hold the office.

And prior to the debate, there were moments when his deterioration was certainly worrying.

But the debate itself left him exposed, unmasked.

There could no longer be any doubt at all and no concealment.

Joe Biden was an old man, getting older, and Donald Trump was likely to win in a landslide.

After the debate, Biden's people said, in effect, nothing to look at here. The president had a

cold. He had a bad day. We all have

bad days, right? But it was hard to watch that debate and see it as a fluke. For millions of Americans,

the willing suspension of disbelief collapsed right then and there. Who could believe any longer

that Joe Biden, no matter what you thought of his

achievements as president, could fulfill those duties for another four years? We know how this

story ended, but there's a lot we didn't know until now. Reporting by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson

makes clear that the debate night was not a fluke at all.

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