David Palmer

David Palmer, J.D., was a two-term Democratic Congressman, a one-term Senator, and then the first African-American President of the United States of America. Uncharacteristic for a politician, David Palmer had built his political career on integrity, honesty, commitment, honor, and a deep concern about the welfare of the American people. Ex-Vice President Hal Gardner once said that "David was one of the greatest men to ever occupy the office." His home state was Maryland.

On Day 5, David Palmer was assassinated by Conrad Haas, a hired gunman, to prevent him from exposing a conspiracy within the U.S. government. He was 55 years old.

Before Nightfall

 * View David Palmer's profile at Character profiles.

David Palmer was born approximately 48 years before Day 1. He attended Georgetown University with his childhood sweetheart and future wife, Sherry.

Together, David and Sherry had a son, named Keith, and a daughter, named Nicole.

Seven years before Day 1, Nicole was raped by a man named Lyle Gibson. After the attack, Keith sought out Gibson, and inadvertently killed him in a confrontation. Realizing that this would destroy David's political career, Sherry conspired with her children and Palmer financier Carl Webb to cover up the murder, creating the impression that Gibson had committed suicide. The four of them kept the truth secret from David up until Day 1, when he learned about the coverup from reporter Maureen Kingsley.

As a member of the House National Security Subcommittee, Senator David Palmer authorized a mission, codenamed Operation Nightfall, to eliminate Balkan war criminal Victor Drazen. The mission was organized by NSA operative Robert Ellis and carried out by a small team led by Jack Bauer.

Vanishing Point
In Vanishing Point, David, with his wife Sherry went to Las Vegas for the Pan-American Drug Conference but secretly planned to see the demonstration of the Malignant Wave project at Area 51.

After Vanishing Point
Palmer arrived in Los Angeles the day before the Presidential Primary and made the round for photo-ops.

Day 1



 * Read more about David Palmer on Day 1...

Palmer's life was threatened during the course of Day 1. On another front, his political career was threatened as well. His son, Keith, was shown to be a viable suspect in the murder of the man who raped Nicole, Palmer's daughter and Keith's sister. Palmer investigated, but found that telling the truth was preferable to covering it up with lies and took a stand in favor of his son. However, he found out his wife, Sherry, was trying to manipulate him, both in that potential scandal, and in another that Sherry tried to create. David was furious with Sherry, and finally divorced her at the close of the day.

On this day, David won all eleven states involved in Super Tuesday, including California, Ohio, and New York. This day was part of the Californian Presidential Primary.

Day 2



 * Read more about David Palmer on Day 2...

Over a year later, in Day 2, David Palmer was still serving his term as President. As he was working out of the Northwest Region Operations Complex, he was alerted to the threat of a nuclear bomb detonating in the U.S. He was also informed that Bauer, now an inactive agent, has contacts with people who could lead them to the bomb. Jack was still distraught over the death of his wife and his strained relationship with Kim, and he ignored calls from CTU. However, he responded to the call from President Palmer. Jack became an active agent again and eventually caught the bomb and detonated it in a remote area.

Palmer also had difficulties throughout the day, including dealing with the treachery of NSA director Roger Stanton, and his advisor Mike Novick conspiring with his Vice President James Prescott to use the 25th Amendment to remove him from office because of his belief that the Cyprus recording may have been forged, and his refusal to authorize military action because of it. Eventually, Palmer was able to regain the presidency due to the efforts of Brian Jacobs and Jack Bauer.

At the end of the day, Palmer is attacked by Mandy, who used a virus to attack him under orders from Max.

The Game


In 24: The Game, James Prescott had taken over as acting president due to Palmer's illness. However, Prescott was in an assassination attempt himself, leading to Palmer's reinstation to office. He claimed on television that he is healthy and ready to assume duties as President, yet did not reveal that he was still in a wheelchair.

Dr. Kevin Tyson, his personal physician, told him that he was still not healthy enough, but was getting stronger. When Palmer suffered heart problems, Tyson banned him from making any more public appearances, or showing himself on television.

Day 3

 * Read more about David Palmer on Day 3...

During Day 3, Palmer is faced with re-election and participates in the first of three debates with Senator John Keeler. During the televised debate, a nationwide crisis develops centering around a bio-terrorist mastermind who eventually holds the country hostage with the highly lethal Cordilla virus. President Palmer is forced to endanger his bid for a second term in office, and finds himself beholden to the demands of the terrorist in order to buy CTU desperately-needed time to stop him. At the same time, his Presidency is challenged by Alan Milliken, a former political supporter. David calls in his ex-wife Sherry Palmer to help, but this situation quickly gains the momentum to unravel into personal disasters and death.

Day 4


After the events of Day 3, Palmer did not run for re-election, and so is an ex-President by Day 4. However, Mike Novick, a longtime friend, recommended he be brought in to assist the Acting President, Charles Logan, as showed poor judgement abilities; demanding the arrest of Jack Bauer, who at the time was staging a critical operation to apprehend the architect of the day's terrorist activities. The operation failed as a result of Logan's poor decision making, and Palmer was brought in shortly thereafter and effectively led the country in the last part of Day 4. Logan was less than gracious in accepting the help as he blamed Palmer when things went wrong, but took full credit when things went his way.

The Chinese government gained proof that Jack led the attack on the Chinese consulate and demanded Jack's extradition. Palmer called Jack to thank him for his exemplary service to the country and told him that the Chinese government had proof of his role in the attack. When Jack asked what kind of proof they had, Palmer informed him that Howard Bern, a member of the team that went into the Consulate with Jack, made a full confession on tape. Palmer also said that the Chinese probably wanted Jack to implicate the United States government in the attack. Jack insisted that he would never do this, and Palmer agreed. However, this decision was not up to him. Palmer informed Jack that a Secret Service agent was on his way to take Jack into custody. Palmer also promised Jack that he will do everything he could to bring him back to U.S. soil as soon as possible.



A few minutes later, Novick overheard a conversation between Logan's Chief of Staff, Walt Cummings, and Secret Service Agent Dale Spalding. Cummings ordered Spalding to kill Jack Bauer once he was in custody in order to prevent the Chinese from extracting any information. Novick gave this information to David Palmer. He paid his debt to Jack by warning him that the Secret Service was not just taking him into custody, but was instead planning on killing him. Jack was able to escape by faking his own death with the help of Tony Almeida, Michelle Dessler, and Chloe O'Brian.

After Jack escaped, he called Palmer and thanked him for saving his life. Palmer said that that would be the last time they would ever speak, because, for all intents and purposes, Jack Bauer was dead. Jack understood, and thanked him once more, saying that it had been a pleasure to work for him. Palmer hung up the phone and never spoke to Jack again.

David Palmer is therefore one of the four people who knew Jack was alive after he faked his death.

Day 5


At 7:03am, while writing his memoirs at his brother's penthouse apartment in Los Angeles, Palmer was assassinated by a sniper named Conrad Haas from an adjacent building with a .308 (NATO 7.62x51mm) round to the throat. He died instantly.



It was later revealed that Palmer had attempted to contact Martha Logan, a good friend and First Lady of the United States, with the intent of talking to her about a "matter of national security". This knowledge was what led to his assassination. Initially, Walt Cummings and James Nathanson were revealed as being complicit in the murder, but later it is discovered that Christopher Henderson arranged for the death, to prevent the First Lady from finding out that her husband, President Charles Logan was arranging to sell Sentox nerve gas to Russian Separatists led by Vladimir Bierko, although some time after that Logan was revealed to be manipulated by Graem Bauer, a power broker. The next morning, Logan gave a filmed, faux eulogy remembering Palmer and was arrested immediately afterwards by the Secret Service due to evidence incriminating him in the assassination, which was obtained thanks to the efforts of Jack Bauer, Martha Logan, Mike Novick, Chloe O'Brian, Morris O'Brian and Aaron Pierce. Logan was led to his limousine as Palmer was given a 21-gun salute before being placed on a plane headed for Washington, DC.

President David Palmer was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Selected cabinet and administration officials

 * Vice President: Jim Prescott (Season 2-3)
 * Chief of Staff: Mike Novick (Season 1-2), Wayne Palmer (Season 3)
 * Director of the National Security Agency: Roger Stanton (Season 2)
 * Deputy Director of the National Security Agency: Eric Rayburn (Season 2)
 * Counselor to the President: Lynne Kresge (Season 2)
 * Press Secretary: Jenny Dodge (Season 2)
 * Secretary of Homeland Security: Joseph O'Laughlin (Season 3)

Major legislation

 * Defense Appropriations Bill (sometime between Season 1 and Season 2)
 * Social Security Bill (sometime between Season 1 and Season 2)
 * A "clean energy" proposal (sometime between Season 1 and Season 2)
 * Job Creation and worker Assistance Act (sometime between Season 2 and Season 3)
 * A bill to improve health care for Americans (Palmer's biggest contributor, Alan Miliken, threatened to stop this bill, and it is unknown whether the bill was passed) (Season 3)

Controversial decisions

 * Secretly authorized an operation to take out Balkan war criminal Victor Drazen (2 years before Season 1)
 * Took reporter Ron Weiland into custody against his will (Season 2)
 * Ordered the torture of NSA Director Roger Stanton (Season 2)
 * Enlisted ex-wife Sherry Palmer's help (Seasons 2, 3)
 * Opened the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling (Midnight Sun)
 * Authorized a prison break-in to covertly release terrorist Ramon Salazar, as per terrorist demands (Season 3)
 * Gave in to demands of terrorist Stephen Saunders several times, including the murder of Ryan Chappelle (Season 3)
 * Lied to LA police chief to provide an alibi for Sherry Palmer (Season 3)
 * Authorized a covert operation to extract a vital witness who was a Chinese national from the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles. During this operation the consul was killed, which could be considered an act of war, even though he was killed by friendly fire. (Season 4)

Background information and notes

 * A picture of David, actually one of Dennis Haysbert's promotional images for Season 3, is seen in the Oval Office throughout Day 6.
 * David Palmer was the first African-American president elected to office on the show.
 * David's brother Wayne succeeded him two terms later, and became the second African-American man elected to office.
 * Although they were close friends, Palmer and Jack Bauer only met on three occasions in 24, all of them on Day 1, though they spoke to each other frequently by phone in later seasons.
 * An "April Fools" joke ending of Season 2 involved Palmer getting into a car with Nina Myers, which would implicate him in the day's events. Instead, the writers had Mandy attempt to assassinate him.
 * The IP address of his computer in Day 5 was 292.162.12.2.
 * Palmer was the only character beside Jack that appeared in the first 72 episodes of the show.
 * Appeared in all of the season finales of the first four seasons.
 * Palmer was the only character beside Jack that appeared in all the first 69 Previously on 24 segments. He also has the most Previously on 24 segments besides Jack, at 71.
 * According to his Presidential memoirs, Palmer spent time as a youth in Philadelphia. It is unclear as to if he was born there, or lived there.
 * An alternate ending for Day 2 was filmed, which shows Palmer getting up after Mandy's assassination attempt and telling the people around him he is fine. This was done so the extras used in the scene wouldn't go around spoiling the ending.  This alternate version appears in the deleted scenes on the season 2 DVD.
 * Footage of Mandy's assassination attempt on Palmer from the final episode of Day 2 appeared on James Nathanson's television screen in Day 5 8:00am-9:00am.