FRONTLINE tells the inside story of Joe Biden’s rise to the presidency, and the personal and political forces that shaped him and led to his fateful decision to step aside.
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President Biden’s decision to end his bid for reelection less than four months before the 2024 election was the latest dramatic and difficult moment in what has been a lifetime of challenges and controversies, triumphs and tragedies.
In the documentary “Biden’s Decision,” FRONTLINE offers a sweeping look at Biden’s life and legacy and examines his five decades in U.S. politics. From his childhood battle with stuttering and then the death of his wife and young child, through his decades as a U.S. senator, his failed presidential bids, his eight years as vice president in the Obama administration, and then finally taking office as president himself in a time of cascading national crises, Biden was always one to pick himself back up after challenging moments, those who know him told FRONTLINE.
The film explores the fraught days after Biden gave a halting debate performance against former President Donald Trump — a man he was determined to beat a second time in November — and examines why he made the choice to stand down and, in his words, “pass the torch to a new generation.”
“Biden’s Decision” is a FRONTLINE Production with Kirk Documentary Group, Ltd. The director is Michael Kirk. The producers are Michael Kirk, Mike Wiser, Vanessa Fica and Philip Bennett. The writers are Michael Kirk and Mike Wiser. The reporters are Vanessa Fica and Brooke Nelson Alexander. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.
Explore related reporting on our website: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/bidens-decision/
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FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and airs nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Park Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Prologue
04:30 - Childhood Experiences That Shaped Joe Biden
15:32 - Biden’s Interest in Priesthood, Then Politics as a Teen
21:30 - Biden’s Senate Run in the Early ‘70s & the Death of His Wife and Daughter
42:04 - How Plagiarism Accusations Thwarted Biden’s First Presidential Run in ‘88
49:43 - How Biden Handled Clarence Thomas’ Confirmation Hearings, Including Anita Hill’s Allegations 01:01:25 - Biden’s Time as Vice President to Former President Barack Obama
01:09:13 - Biden’s Relationships With His Sons Beau, Who Died in 2015, and Hunter Biden
01:27:04 - Biden’s Presidency & His Decision to Not Seek Reelection
01:52:17 - Credits