The Democrats’ “October surprise” might come from inside their own tent this election cycle.
Former President Joe Biden has now officially announced the release date for his forthcoming memoir. And while it won’t hit shelves until November 17 – two weeks after the midterms – publicity for the book will be in full swing in the weeks leading up to the November 3 general election. That means Democrats will likely be forced to relitigate what went wrong in 2024.
To add insult to injury, the date reveal was accompanied by a two-minute teaser video in which the 83 year old reminded everyone why he was not fit to serve another term.
On Wednesday’s program, Megyn was joined by Adam Carolla, host of The Adam Carolla Show, to discuss the book promo and why it is bad news for Dems.
The Release Date
Reports of a new Biden book have circulated since the former president left office 18 months ago. He reportedly received a $10 million advance for the project, and the publishing timeline became clearer in recent weeks after he started referencing the memoir in public remarks.
Biden allegedly wrote the book with a “small editorial team,” and Carolla had a theory of what that braintrust might have looked like. “I think the foreword was written by the autopen. It just took off on its own and wrote its own foreword,” he joked.
At one point, Biden made it sound like it would be released before the November election, but that has not turned out to be the case. Instead, Promise Me, America – a nod to his 2017 tome Promise Me, Dad – will drop a couple weeks later and three days before he turns 84.
That will likely do little to ease the concerns of Democrats who hope to regain control of one or both houses of Congress and have already been forced to rehash the disastrous 2024 election when Karine Jean-Pierre, Kamala Harris, and Jill Biden released their own memoirs on the subject.
The Promo Video
The promo video suggests the memoir will dive into everything from January 6 and Covid to why he “chose to step aside” and not seek reelection in 2024. Had he stayed and race and defeated Donald Trump, Biden would currently be serving in the second year of his second term – an troubling fact Megyn believes cannot be ignored.
“Today is, what, July 15? We were told at this point… two years ago… that Joe Biden was [going to be] fully competent to be president at this point. They wanted him to be our commander in chief. They wanted him to have access to the nuclear codes. They thought he could manage the domestic economy, issues involving law and the Supreme Court, and foreign policy,” she noted.
While the glossy trailer is filled with b-roll and jump cuts seemingly meant to distract from the former president’s narration, there is no getting around the fact that he sounds as feeble as ever. In Megyn’s view, watching it through the lens of what was pitched to voters serves as an important exercise.
“Let’s just check in with how he is doing and try to picture him doing that now because he decided to drop a book promo to the world,” she explained. “And this is a taped promo at which he had as many goes at it as he wanted. His team clearly spruced it up before actually hitting publish, and so this is absolutely the best they can do.”
Watch the video released across his social media channels:
I’ve written a book about my time as President. It’s called PROMISE ME, AMERICA. It’s coming out November 17th and is available for preorder now. https://t.co/uMINr9efxS@littlebrown pic.twitter.com/yzWfZyD31A
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 15, 2026
“It is amazing for them to have to watch him current day and to live with the fact that they told us that man… was capable of being the commander in chief right now,” Megyn said. “He didn’t die. He is still alive through the course of what would have been his second term, and we can see for ourselves the guy they said could do it. It is embarrassing. He cannot do it. He truly sounds drunk all the time.”
And then there are the glaring issues with the content of the book itself. “To actually try to spin this [as] ‘why I chose to step aside.’ I mean, we all know mob boss Nancy Pelosi basically said, ‘You step aside, or you never get any legacy… We’re going to shit all over you and your family and everything you know connected to you,'” Megyn said.
“All of this is revisionist history,” she concluded, “which I guess is perfectly on brand for the lies that we were told by this guy while he was in office, and in order to get in office, and in order to try to stay in office, it’s just so like the gaslighting continues.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Carolla by tuning in to episode 1,360 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.