Step Aside, Mr. President.

Chapter 4 - The Long Game

May 23, 2024 - Democratic Primary Victory Rally, Columbus, Ohio

The crowd's cheers echoed through the convention center as President Nicholas Hayes took another primary victory. On stage, his smile was triumphant, his stance commanding – nothing like the frail figure his opponents tried to paint him as. Eleanor Montgomery watched standing behind the President as his loyal deputy, her practiced smile masking mounting frustration.

Later that evening, Eleanor paced her hotel suite, phone pressed to her ear. "Play it again," she demanded, watching the clip from Hayes's victory speech. There – a slight stuttering and incoherent mutter, quickly covered by practiced charm.

"Did you catch that?" Gabriel Morrison's voice crackled through the speaker.

"Yet still we have to defend him! It's becoming untenable, how long do you think he'll hold out?" Eleanor's composure cracked. "We need to put more pressure and drag that old fart out of the presidential race or we will never win this election!"

"Patience," Morrison cautioned. "The debate's coming. We'll see what happens."

June 15, 2024 - Democratic Party Strategy Meeting, Washington D.C.

Patricia Fisher, DNC Chair, surveyed the room of worried faces during a strategy meeting. "The internal polling is concerning. Fitzgerald's numbers among independents..."

"The President's numbers would be fine if he'd just stick to the teleprompter," Eleanor interjected. "But he keeps going off-script, telling these rambling stories about his Congress days."

"Patricia," Eleanor said in private after everyone left the room, "You know President needs to step aside or we won't win! DNC needs to put pressure on him." Of course everyone defended him relentlessly on television and on social media.

June 27, 2024 - Presidential Debate, Atlanta, Georgia

The split screen told the story. On the left, Matthew Fitzgerald, commanding and sharp. On the right, President Hayes, gripping his podium with white knuckles.

Early in the debate, Hayes appeared to lose his train of thought while answering a question about the national debt.

He started out by saying Fitzgerald increased the national debt and blamed tax cuts on the wealthy for America's economic woes.

"Fitzgerald had the largest national debt of any president in a four-year period," Hayes said. "Number two, that $2 trillion tax cut benefitted the very wealthy. What I'm gonna do is fix the tax system. For example, we have a thousand trillionaires in America." Everyone watching the debate almost choked at this stumble, before watching Hayes continue.

"I mean billionaires. And what's happening? We're in a situation where they in fact pay 8.2% in taxes. If they just pay 24%, 25%, either one of those numbers we would've raised $500 million ... billion dollars, I should say, in a 10-year period. We'd be able to wipe out his debt."

"We'd be able to help make sure that all those things we need to do — child care, elder care, making sure that we continue to strengthen our health care system, making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the, uh, with the COVID. Excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with .. look, we finally beat Medicare."

"Yes, he beat it to death and he's destroying Medicare because all of these people are coming in," Fitzgerald said. "They're putting them on Medicare. They're putting them on Social Security. They're gonna destroy Social Security."

Fitzgerald called out Hayes for trailing off during his response on immigration policies.

"I really don't know what he said at the end of this. I don't think he knows what he said," Fitzgerald said.

CNN's Jake Tipper asked Hayes why should voters "trust" him to resolve the crisis at the border, noting that a record number of migrants have crossed into the U.S. during his administration.

Hayes pointed to the bipartisan border security deal and his recent executive order that limits the number of migrants coming across the border once the number hits a threshold.

And then Fitzgerald put a final nail in the coffin Trump criticizing Hayes' military policies and said "We're closer to World War Three than anybody can imagine."

Hayes seemed more coherent at the end but in the clips that would go viral Fitzgerald's expression was perfectly calibrated – concern masking satisfaction.