Fight

Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House

De: Jonathan Allen, Amie Parnes

Narrado por: Joe Knezevich

The authors of the #1 New York Times bestseller Shattered provide a revelatory, inside look the Biden, Harris, and Trump camps during the 2024 battle for the White House, arguably the most consequential contest in American history.

The ride was so wild that it forced a sitting president to drop his re-election bid, a once and future president to survive felony convictions and a would-be assassin’s bullet, and a vice president, unexpectedly thrust into the arena, to mount an unprecedented 107-day campaign to lead the free world.

Fight is the backstage story of bloodsport politics in its rawest form—the clawing, backstabbing, and rabble-rousing that drove Donald Trump into the White House and Democrats into the wilderness. At every turn, the combatants went for the jugular, whether they were facing down rivals in the other party or their own.

Bestselling authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes give readers their first graphic view of the characters, their motivations, and their innermost thoughts as they battled to claim the ultimate prize and define a political era. Based on real-time interviews with more than 150 insiders—from the Trump, Harris, and Biden inner circles, as well as party leaders and operatives—Fight delivers the vivid and stunning tale of an election unlike any other.

In the end, Trump overcame voters’ concerns about his personal flaws by tapping into a deep vein of dissatisfaction with the direction of the country. At the same time, Democrats struggled to connect with an electorate that felt gaslit by Biden’s insistence that he had delivered economic prosperity—and his pledge to be a “bridge” president. He tore his party asunder, leaving destroyed personal relationships in his wake, as he clung to power. And when he gave it up, he kneecapped Harris by demanding unprecedented loyalty from her.

As Allen and Parnes have done in the #1 New York Times bestseller Shattered and Lucky, they provide listeners with a skeleton key to the rooms where it all happened, revealing a story more shocking than previously reported.

©2025 Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes (P)2025 HarperCollins Publishers

Good read, very interesting.

The authors did well to write without sounding overly partisan. But the foul language is overwhelming at some points. Story would have been great without the vulgar language.

a balanced look back

I saw an interview about this book on Fox News just the other day and immediately purchased it. Perhaps better than any other book on American politics I have ever read, this book humanizes the election that, as I write this in April 2025 we all remember very clearly. It humanizes the people involved, it makes you feel like you are literally there with them, it is an incredible piece of literature and a wonderful time capsule.

Interesting Insights

A fast paced inside look into both political camps of an incredible cacampaign season. Will definitely listen a couple more times

Well Written, but a bit cliche

If you were alive and paying attention during the 2024 Presidential Election in America--you've already "read" the book. The authors are fair, write clearly, and the book is a good read. But there was nothing new, nothing surprising. Likely, it is a bit too soon for a deep analysis of the 2024 election. So, I was a bit disappointed. Great narration, by the way.

2024 History

I was excited to listen to this production, because I'd been hearing so much about "Fight" in the news. While it's certainly engaging and kept my interest throughout, I walked away a little disappointed.
"Fight" does a good job with a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff that serves as a companion to what we all watched play out in the news over the summer and fall of 2024. The book captures the impressions of political operatives of various levels on both sides of the aisle, from unnamed staffers to the candidates themselves. These diverse voices offer intriguing insights into why the election turned out the way it did.
However, the authors also depict the inner thoughts of various figures, including the candidates. While some of these recollections may come from interviews with the book's subjects, some of them, including the private thoughts of Trump, Biden, Harris & Pelosi (among others), can't be anything other than pure conjecture on the authors' part.
I was disappointed also by the lack of real insights in the book, a task made harder, admittedly, by the recency of the events depicted in "fight." I didn't feel I learned anything new, but rather got confirmation on things that I'd already suspected, or got to see the behind-the-scenes events that inspired them.
Lastly, while the people discussed in this book are generally portrayed with something like objectivity (or at least a game attempt to be objective) regardless of their political affiliation, the authors are unable (or unwilling) to depict Kamala Harris as anything more than as a kind of genial cipher, a well-intentioned biographical blurb, possessed of some generic virtues and no real faults except perhaps naivete, and entirely lacking in agency. With a couple notable exceptions, she seems to drift through this narrative, completely at the mercy of forces not of her making and beyond her control.
I'm glad I read this book, and if the subject interests you, it's a fair bet you'll enjoy it, too. Having said that, I expect that when the dust clears and the passage of years gives historians a chance to draw fresh insights from this election, we'll see more a more incisive analysis of this period. Until then, this is probably the best we've got.

A deep dive into the collapse of one candidate and the return of another.

The story was compelling, and does not suffer from the problems of similar publications around the 2024 election that have a more overt slant. The narrator does not stand out, but that may be a strength depending on your taste. If you like Shattered, or simply want to understand the backroom conflicts and political maneuvers of mid to late 2024, then this is a fine audiobook to listen to.

Confirmed my opinion of politicians!

All I can say is there seems to be one constant in successful politicians-very large egos. Everyone is aware of Trump’s-he doesn’t even try to hide it, but the rest? Crazy how much Trump and Biden have in common personality wise. Even in different circumstances they could never be friends. There are no door frames big enough for them both to get through!

Comprehensive overview of Democrat failures in '24

I bought this book because I had heard about it through some news stories and interviews the authors participated in. I was expecting more of a 50/50 split about the strategies of both the Republican and Democratic campaigns, but this book pretty much exclusively covers the Dems. I was a little disappointed about this at first, but I can understand why they did not want to focus much on Donald Trump's campaign after thinking on it more. The elephant in the room that the American people were told to look away from was the giant cluster of a show the Democratic party put on by trying to hide Joe Biden's decaying cognition.

The book showcases the hubris, selfishness, and entitlement of Biden and his family, and how they chose to enhance his glory and legacy over taking the humble, realistic option of not running again. The book will put you in the room of the stakeholders who were fighting for or against Biden's decision. You can really feel the desperation through the book, and parts of the book will leave you angered at the fact that this entire process is treated as a game, and that no one chose to speak up sooner about there being a mentally incompetent 82-year-old running the most powerful country in the world (side-kicked by an establishment hack VP that clearly had no strategical thinking ability, no political savvy, and had no pulse on any of the issues).

The book is well-written and avoids pundit talk. You will not find many talking points from either side (if any), so you are already cutting through a lot of the surface level "commentary" that we are usually feed from traditional sources. I did not appreciate the speculation on the thoughts of the players, however. How can quote what Donald Trump is thinking? Obviosuly he is quite hard to read and nail down. It really took away from the immersion and is obviously highly speculative. I would not venture down this path again in future books.

If you are a Democratic voter who still believes in the Biden/Harris presidency and campaign, this book will have a lot of hard pills to swallow regarding how the party mislead the American people. If you kept up with the 2025 election, this will fill in a lot of the gaps for you and will be a good listen/read. Hopefully Democratic strategists and politicians are picking up a copy as well--they may learn that they are NOT entitled to the country's vote just because they feel they have the moral high-ground by whispering sweet nothings.

fantastic insights

If you are political junkie this is perfect book for you. really good insight especially from Democrat side. Little slanted towards left but nothing major. Just perfectly explaining ruthlessness of American politics. very good narration also

Fills in ALL the missing links of the 2024 election!

Excellent read of what took place during the crazy election of 2024! This book filled in a lot of the missing info if what really took place.