Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs 2024 has been a roller coaster of news: from Donald Trump being shot at a campaign rally to Joe Biden pulling out of the presidential race, Newsweek writers give their verdicts on the defining moment of the year. You can also have your say by voting in our poll and leaving your thoughts in the comment form below.Darvio Morrow — Trump assassination attemptThe moment that defined 2024 was the first of two assassination attempts on former (and now future) President Donald Trump. It was a moment that took Trump out of the realm of politician and transformed him to an almost martyr figure in the country. That heinous incident had a profound impact on the presidential race. Elon Musk endorsed Trump almost immediately after. It unified the Republican Party (including some holdouts still wishing for DeSantis) behind Trump. The iconic image of him with his fist in the air telling the audience to “fight, fight, fight” as blood was dripping down his ear will be remembered for generations. His popularity went up after the assassination attempt. A majority of the country recognized the proverbial bullet that both Trump and the country dodged by that incident not being worse. Americans are a rebellious bunch, so trying to stop a political figure by nearly killing him provokes the opposite reaction. This changed the nature of the race and the country. It was the defining moment of 2024.Darvio Morrow is CEO of the FCB Radio NetworkMichael Tracey — Biden pulls outOn July 21, 2024, Joe Biden announced he would withdraw his candidacy for president. This was after weeks in which loyal Democratic partisans had to insist, with a straight face, that they had every confidence in Biden’s capacity to retain sole authority over the US nuclear codes at age 86—which is how old Biden would’ve been in the second term he had nominally claimed to be running for. Gavin Newsom, the California Governor who conspicuously found himself campaigning one day in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, told me, “I think he has all the competence and all the capacity … So, yes,” when I asked if he thought it would be prudent for an 86-year-old Biden to be the sole possessor of this civilization-destroying power. That was an affirmation from Newsom which should be placed in a time capsule at least until he’s 86. I had never seen Democrats more morose than during that several-week stretch between the fateful CNN debate and Biden’s duressed withdrawal. Then they were briefly buoyed by an artificial euphoria after Kamala Harris was granted the nomination in a Soviet-style insider putsch, about which we still have yet to learn the full details, and they dismissed anyone who deigned to notice that Harris had to compete for not a single Democratic primary vote — effectively scuttling decades of precedent, and rendering the very concept of presidential primaries a discardable irrelevancy. This vacuous flailing of top Democrats, and their collective political ineptitude, despite endless fulminating that another election of Donald Trump would be the death knell for our cherished democracy, is certainly a “moment” that defines the year of our lord 2024.Michael Tracey is an independent reporter
Eric Schmeltzer—Trump hush money convictionIn May, a historic first happened: Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts related to hush money payments to illegally influence the 2016 election, making him the first and only former president to become a convicted felon. It isn’t so much the conviction itself that defined 2024, it was the collective decision of more than half the country to shrug and move on. Trump never saw a true hit in polling after his conviction and was nominated to be the party’s nominee just a couple of months later. He went on to win a clear and undisputed victory over Kamala Harris just some months after that. His conviction and its lack of impact afterward defined 2024 as the clearest signal that no norm can be broken and likely no act that will condemn someone politically if they’re on Team Trump. We see that being born out as we close out the year, with Pete Hegseth seemingly likely to be the next Secretary of Defense, despite sexual assault allegations, which he denies, dalliances with radical Christian groups, and an affinity for white nationalist symbols, and Robert Kennedy, Jr all but assured to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services also with sexual assault allegations (which he doesn’t deny). Matt Gaetz was forced to step aside, but only because Members of his own party hated him so much that they threatened to take them down themselves. Otherwise, anything goes now for the nation that used to admiringly tell every child about young George Washington fessing up to chopping down that cherry tree.Eric Schmeltzer is a Los Angeles-based political consultantJonathan Tobin — Trump assassination attemptOn Saturday, July 13, 2024, if a bullet fired from an assassin’s rifle had not missed Donald Trump by less than an inch, the course of history could have been changed. Trump’s turning of his head to face a jumbotron at the Butler County Pennsylvania Farm Grounds only a second before would-be assassin Thomas Crooks fired saved his life. Instead of dying, he was wounded in his ear. And rather than cower behind a Secret Service contingent that had inexplicably failed to protect him, the bloodstained candidate pumped his fist in defiance while saying, “Fight!” It was an iconic moment that produced an equally iconic photograph. But this close brush with death symbolized both Trump’s amazing comeback from the debacle of the 2020 election and its aftermath and the fighting spirit that led to an Electoral College and popular vote victory in November 2024. Trump’s victory was the result of many factors as the Democratic Party’s circular firing squad debate over the assignment of blame for their loss has indicated. But it was the appeal of Trump to working class Americans of all races that ensured that the GOP would take advantage of their opponents’ failures during the last four years. Trump’s courageous response to danger summed up everything Americans like about him and why they wanted to give him the chance to reverse the nations’ decline into woke ideological madness and incompetence. If he succeeds, it will not only be due to his survival but to the way that incident encapsulated why Americans returned him to the White House.Jonathan Tobin is Editor in chief, JNS.org
What Was The Moment That Defined 2024? Newsweek Writers’ Verdicts
What Was The Moment That Defined 2024? Newsweek Writers’ Verdicts
Photo Illustration by Newsweek/Getty Images
Thomas Moukawsher—Supreme Court on Trump’s election fraud caseThe most important day in 2024 was February 28th. On that day, the Supreme Court halted Donald Trump’s election fraud prosecution while it slow walked the case through briefing, a hearing, and a decision process that prevented 2024 voters from knowing if Trump was guilty of trying to steal the 2020 election. Didn’t the justices witness the Jan. 6 attacks—the dead and wounded? Thanks to them the attack mastermind escaped scot-free and soon those who that day desecrated the Capitol and battered the police will be pardoned and will leap snarling back into society. Black Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024.Thomas G. Moukawsher is a former Connecticut complex litigation judgeRamsen Shamon—Bashar al-Assad overthrownThe first was oil-rich Azerbaijan hosting the United Nations climate change conference (COP29). The decision by the international community to address one of the most important crises of our time in a country classified as “not free” by Freedom House (rated 7 out of 100 on global freedom, and 34 out of 100 on internet freedom), ruled by a petro-dictator, signified to the world that the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan was not only overlooked but accepted and celebrated. Such disregard for human rights by the U.N. provided dictators around the world the reassurance that they too could invade and displace Indigenous communities with impunity. The United Nations could have set an example and hosted the conference elsewhere, but they chose otherwise. COP29 was far from a success as rich nations pledged only $300 billion annually by 2035 to less developed countries to combat the adverse effects of climate change—far removed from the $1.3 trillion annually experts said are needed to truly address the climate crisis. The second event that stood out to me was the fleeing of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad from Damascus. I received a push alert of the news during a charity event that works in the Middle East to assist Indigenous Assyrians and others with essentials—essentials that Assad’s government did not provide. Now, the fate of Syria’s Indigenous Assyrians, other Christians, and minority ethnic groups lays in limbo as rebels have taken over the country. What will happen to Syria and the Middle East? Will an ISIS-like government be propped up? Will a democratically-elected government be established? A republic of Syria most likely won’t be ushered in anytime soon, but I hope I’m proved wrong.Ramsen Shamon is Deputy Opinion Editor, Newsweek iframe {position: absolute;top: 0;left: 0;width: 100%;height: 100%;overflow:hidden;}]]>Aron Solomon — Biden pulls outI clearly remember the moment that defined 2024. I was in Nashville, getting ready to leave a legal conference just as President Trump was getting ready to arrive for the massive Crypto conference in the same venue. I watched as President Biden withdrew from the race. This moment was the one for me. Over the next hours and days, as everyone seemed to lose themselves in boundless momentum, I imagined where and when this zeal would hit its peak and how much would be left by the time people voted, which was not enough.Aron Solomon is a legal analyst iframe {position: absolute;top: 0;left: 0;width: 100%;height: 100%;overflow:hidden;}]]>Patrick T. Brown — Trump assassination attemptThe moment that will define 2024 in history books came in July, when mere centimeters at a Pennsylvania fairgrounds separated tragedy from the unthinkable. But for a moment that presaged a post-Covid era of good feelings, flash back to February. After an overtime Super Bowl win, a star tight end kissed his girlfriend, the world’s most successful pop star, as confetti flew—the stuff dreams are made of. Covid and a sputtering Presidency lie behind us, a sense of national renewal and smooth economic sailing ahead; that moment of pure Americana may come as close as any to capturing the optimism of where 2024 may lead.Patrick T. Brown is a Fellow at The Ethics and Public Policy CenterMatt Robison — AI’s riseWhen Dr. Geoffrey E. Hinton won the Nobel Prize in Physics for helping to develop artificial intelligence. AI is now shaping the world, including in positive ways. But ironically, Hinton left his position at Google last year to speak out about its dangers: especially that AI will flood us with false information, destroying the foundation of open societies. Our mental bedrock is already fracturing. Oxford announced “brain rot”—intellectual deterioration from consuming online drivel—as its Word of the Year. President-Elect Donald Trump won on the strength of people who don’t follow news. 2024 was the year we began to see what happens when machine and human intelligence interact, and the knife’s edge on which we now rest.Matt Robison is a writer, podcast host, and former congressional staffer
