The New Yorker: Politics And More

During the height of Roy Cohn’s friendship with Donald Trump, according to the historian Kai Bird, “they were on the phone with each other a dozen times a day.” Bird’s new book, “American Scoundrel,” details Cohn’s profound influence on Trump—whom he met as a young real-estate heir in the nineteen-seventies—and how Cohn is “haunting” politics in our time. “I had written about Roy Cohn in [previous biographies] as this nefarious, minor, awful figure who was disruptive and divisive and unethical. And I suddenly realized that the establishment that I’d been writing about for forty years is gone. Their values and culture, the politics, the bipartisanship . . . that’s all gone,” he tells David Remnick. “Roy Cohn explains something about the dark side of America that I just didn’t understand.” They discuss Cohn’s early career as a prosecutor and his role as the “mastermind” of the McCarthy purges; his service as a lawyer and fixer for Mafia members, politicians, and celebrities; and an allegation of

The Washington Roundtable will be back next week. In the meantime, we’re pleased to bring you the Season 2 premiere of “Master Plan,” the award-winning investigative podcast from The Lever. In its second season, titled “The Kingmakers,” the host, David Sirota, a former speechwriter for Bernie Sanders and an Oscar-nominated co-writer for “Don’t Look Up,” examines the decades-long building of an all-powerful American Presidency. This episode explores how Richard Nixon’s secret expansion of the Vietnam War, along with his attempts to seize the power of the purse from Congress sparked a constitutional crisis and a backlash, setting the stage for many of the legal battles that dominate today’s political landscape.  We hope you’ll enjoy it. For the rest of “Master Plan” ’s second season, follow and listen to the show: https://play.megaphone.fm/lzjeitnbt6ikozz2aydzrw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The New Yorker contributing writer Eren Orbey joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the trial of Lindsay Clancy, who is accused of murdering her three children during a period of severe postpartum mental-health struggles. They talk about the tragedy at the center of the trial and the question of whether Clancy’s mental state at the time meets the legal standard for a lack of criminal responsibility. They also discuss Eren’s experience reporting on the case in 2024, including his extensive conversations with Clancy’s now ex-husband, Patrick; the intense public reaction to the case and the proliferation of conspiracy theories surrounding it; and how cultural understanding—and misunderstanding—of women’s mental health and postpartum psychosis have shaped the coverage and discourse. This week’s reading: “The Lindsay Clancy Conspiracy Spiral,” by Eren Orbey “Why People Want to Believe the Lindsay Clancy Conspiracy Theories,” by Jessica Winter “Is R.F.K., Jr., Winning or Losing?,” by Dhruv Khullar “Adam Hami

In the 2026 midterm elections, close finishes in crucial swing states have put a spotlight on the divide between the Democratic Party’s moderate and progressive wings. Jon Lovett straddles that divide. He was a longtime speechwriter for Hillary Clinton and then for Barack Obama, but, as a host of the podcasts “Pod Save America” and “Lovett or Leave It,” he’s been critical of the Party’s establishment. Lovett sat down with David Remnick to answer listeners’ questions about the midterms and what they suggest about the 2028 Presidential election. In a “broad trend,” Lovett says, centrist Democrats “put up candidates, and they say, ‘Vote for us, or else.’ And [voters] just keep picking ‘or else.’ . . . Across the board, I don’t know what this establishment of the Democratic Party stands for, and neither does the country.” Further listening:  “ ‘Pod Save America’ ’s Jon Lovett on Trump: ‘The Threat of Jail Time Sharpens the Mind,’ ” an episode of The New Yorker Radio Hour The P

The Washington Roundtable’s Susan B. Glasser interviews General David Petraeus about where the conflicts in Iran and Ukraine might be headed and what they can tell us about the future of warfare. They discuss the fleets of inexpensive drones which have upended traditional combat, how the impending arrival of A.I.-powered automated systems might “revolutionize” the battlefield, and what institutional overhauls Petraeus believes are urgently needed at the Pentagon in order to respond. “We need to do a lot to catch up,” Petraeus says. “But there are vested interests in the military-industrial-congressional-complex that are gonna fight tooth and nail for any actions that change force structure, reduce the aircraft they have on their ramp in their congressional district, or production of manned ships, manned tanks, or whatever else it is, and this is gonna be a fight.” This week’s reading: “After Six Months of War, Trump Is Still Losing to Iran,” by Ishaan Tharoor “Is the Smithsonian Really Trying to Destr

The New Yorker contributing writer Jon Allsop joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the shifting meaning of the word “moderate” in the 2026 election season. They talk about recent primary results in Michigan and Wisconsin, and what the contests reveal about Democratic voters’ appetite for establishment candidates versus the Party’s progressive insurgency. They also explore how labels like “moderate” and “centrist” map onto mainstream American opinion on issues such as ICE, U.S. support for Israel, and universal health care, as well as how the progressive wing might adjust its messaging ahead of the midterms—and what the outcome could mean for the Party’s direction as it looks toward the 2028 Presidential race. This week’s reading: “What Does It Even Mean to Be a Moderate?,” by Jon Allsop “Donald Trump Is Still Trying to Make It Harder to Vote,” by Amy Davidson Sorkin “How Far Will the Trump Administration Go to Deport Mahmoud Khalil?,” by Andrew Marantz “Nayib Bukele’s Content Machine Is Reshaping Lati

1. The data centers that power artificial intelligence are being built at a rampant pace, and are spurring resistance all over the country. Apart from public concerns about A.I.’s impact on jobs, privacy, and other aspects of life, data centers consume vast amounts of electricity and water. New York has passed a moratorium on new data centers; fourteen other states have considered restrictions. The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is taking this fight to the national level. He and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have introduced legislation that calls for a nationwide moratorium on data centers to allow time for more research and public input on the issue. The furor, Sanders tells David Remnick, cuts across political divisions. The opponents “are conservatives, they are progressives, they are moderates,” he adds. “They’re saying, What the hell are we doing? What is this gonna contribute to? Is this gonna result in my kid not being able to have a job? Is this gonna result in my not having any privacy? Why

The Washington Roundtable’s Evan Osnos interviews the former Commerce Secretary and Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo about a problem she’s been working on since she left the Biden Administration: how to make sure that the A.I. revolution does not leave American workers behind. Drawing on her father’s experience of losing his factory job in the wake of outsourcing to China, Raimondo warns against repeating the mistakes of the past and argues that the U.S. needs a plan to help workers navigate the A.I. transition. “We can’t put the toothpaste back in the bottle. A.I. is out there,” Raimondo says. “We want to harness the good, but be intentional about having a plan and safeguards for the bad.” She also discusses why Democrats should focus not just on affordability but on the politics and promise of prosperity and the American Dream. This week’s reading: “A.I. Is Now a Major Election Issue,” by Benjamin Wallace-Wells “If A.I. Takes the Jobs of Young People, How Will They React?,” by Jay Caspian Kang

The journalist Michelle Lhooq joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss her reporting on ibogaine, a psychedelic that has recently been embraced by the right—including President Donald Trump. They talk about the movement to promote research into ibogaine as a treatment for mental illness; the unlikely coalition of drug advocates, Republican politicians, and the veterans who helped bring the drug into the political mainstream;  and Trump’s executive order expediting the F.D.A. approval of psychedelic therapies. They also discuss how the politics of psychedelics have shifted over the years, and whether the success of the ibogaine initiative could signal a broader shift toward the acceptance and legalization of more psychedelics and other drugs. This week’s reading: “Are Psychedelics Right-Wing Now?,” by Michelle Lhooq “The Delusions of John Roberts,” by Margaret Talbot “The Great Delegalization,” by Dara Lind “A.I. Is Now a Major Election Issue,” by Benjamin Wallace-Wells

One of the biggest stories of this election cycle is the emergence, for the first time in a long time, of socialism as a force on the national stage. Inspired perhaps by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Zohran Mamdani, D.S.A. candidates are running in congressional and state-level races all over the country. But some of those candidates, David Remnick thinks, talk more like F.D.R. Democrats than like students of Marx. How socialist is democratic socialism, and how does it square with the future of the Democratic Party? Remnick talks with a co-chair of the D.S.A., Megan Romer, who recently went viral for a lightning round of questions pitched at her on Fox News. Romer defends controversial D.S.A. positions on workers’ ownership of the means of production, U.S. support of Israel, the war in Ukraine, and defunding the police.   Further reading:  “Will Left-Wing Democrats Reinvent the Party or Hurt Its Chances in November?,” by Isaac Chotiner “Which Way Should the Democratic Party Go Now?,” by

The Washington Roundtable’s Jane Mayer interviews Andrew Weissmann, a former prosecutor for the Department of Justice who served as a lead member of the Mueller investigation, about what meaningful legal accountability in the Trump Administration looks like. He points to a fix that would raise the bar for federal grand-jury indictments, and explains why he believes that Donald Trump’s disputed I.R.S. settlement may not survive legal scrutiny. He also makes the case, drawn from his new book, “Liar’s Kingdom: How to Stop Trump’s Deceit and Save America,” for treating political lying itself as a problem that the law can address. “We have to be thinking about big, bold ideas,” Weissmann says. This week’s reading: “The Future, Made in China,” by Evan Osnos “How Roy Cohn Taught Donald Trump Everything,” by Kai Bird and Susan Goldmark “Why Donald Trump Talks So Much About Foreign Election Interference,” by David D. Kirkpatrick “The Electability of Abdul El-Sayed,” by Jason Zengerle Tune in to The Pol

Michigan’s Senate seat is a must-win for Democrats hoping to take control of the Senate in 2026. The midterms are reflecting a surge of energy behind left-leaning Democratic candidates—sometimes known as the Mamdani effect—challenging their party’s establishment and its tarnished image. Abdul El-Sayed, a former health official, firmly supports Medicare for All and the abolition of ICE. He’s ahead of his moderate Democratic rival, Haley Stevens, in most polls. But that has some Democrats worried that El-Sayed is too radical to win the general election in a state that narrowly voted for Trump in 2024. El-Sayed talks with David Remnick about being “radicalized in medical school,” the trap of expressing righteous anger as an Arab candidate, how Robert F. Kennedy’s anti-science views have taken such a hold on the public, and why AIPAC and other lobbying groups have spent sixty million dollars opposing him in this election.   Further reading and listening:  “Michigan Is the Next Big Test for the

The Washington Roundtable reflects on the stories they’ve been following this summer, touching on the “power mourners” at Lindsey Graham’s funeral, Anthony Fauci’s diaries and Senate hearing, and China’s usurping of the U.S. in global power. Plus, the hosts share what books they’re reading.  This week’s reading: “The Outlandish Case Against James Comey,” by Ruth Marcus “Which Way Should the Democratic Party Go Now?,” by Benjamin Wallace-Wells “Will Left-Wing Democrats Reinvent the Party or Hurt Its Chances in November?,” by Isaac Chotiner “How Donald Trump Silenced the Voice of America,” by Marc Fisher Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The New Yorker contributor Mike Spies joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the story of a woman who lost two partners to suicide by firearm and then spent years in a legal battle with the National Rifle Association over her late partner’s retirement savings. They talk about the role that gun ownership and decades of messaging from the N.R.A. played in her second partner’s descent into paranoia, extremism, and abuse. They also explore the link between firearm access and suicide, how gun-rights organizations have sought to cast doubt on research connecting the two, and the current state of the debate over gun rights and gun safety. This episode mentions suicide and suicidal thoughts. If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 or chat at 988Lifeline.org.  This week’s reading: “A Woman Lost Two Partners to Guns—Then the N.R.A. Came to Collect,” by Mike Spies “Trump’s Isolationism Is Losing the Great E.V. Race,” by Bill McKibben “The Department of Labored Content,” by Brady Brickner-Wood

In 2025, as ICE was struggling to meet an impossible goal of three thousand immigration arrests per day, the agency took an unprecedented step: picking people up when they arrived at immigration court. These were immigrants seeking legal status through appropriate channels. The staff writer Jonathan Blitzer, who has been reporting on immigration for over a decade, tells the story of one man detained this way, a Guinean refugee who was seeking asylum after a severe beating and death threats by his government. His first name is Alsainy, and his story exemplifies the ways that the Trump Administration is sabotaging the system of legal immigration.  Though President Donald Trump came back to the White House with broad support for his border policies, his Administration’s immigration crackdown has been broadly unpopular. The staff writer Jonathan Blitzer spoke with two representatives in Congress about the blowback: Jason Crow, of Colorado, and María Salazar, of Florida. Crow is one of the Democratic Party

The Washington Roundtable is joined by Carl Hulse, the New York Times’ chief Washington correspondent, to discuss Congress’s dwindling role in the American political system. Why are Congress members passing fewer bills than their predecessors? Why can the institution no longer complete basic tasks of governing, such as passing a budget on time? Are representatives more interested in being social-media stars than crafting legislation? The panel analyzes why Congress has increasingly surrendered its power to the President, in areas as diverse as tariffs and the war in Iran. “Once you give up power, you never get it back in Washington,” Hulse says. This week’s reading: “The White House Press Corps in the Second Trump Era,” by Katy Waldman “The Complications of Graham Platner’s Veteran Identity,” by Jasper Craven “Maine’s Mad Scramble to Replace Graham Platner,” by Jason Zengerle “Trump’s War on Journalists,” by Ruth Marcus The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Y

The New Yorker staff writer David D. Kirkpatrick joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss the Biden Administration’s failure to restrain Israel during its military campaign in Gaza. They talk about what Kirkpatrick has learned from former senior members of Biden’s national-security team—some of whom spoke on the record about key decisions during the conflict for the first time—and how previously undisclosed documents and revelations point to the Administration’s failure to rein in the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and to reduce Palestinian civilian casualties. They also explore why the former officials are now speaking candidly about their missteps, and whether the Administration’s approach to Israel helped shape the conditions that led to the current war with Iran. This week’s reading: “How Biden Enabled Israel’s Aggression Toward Gaza—and Iran,” by David D. Kirkpatrick “María Corina Machado’s Opposition in Exile,” by Stephania Taladrid “Donald Trump’s Election-Fraud Bait and Switch,” by Ruth

Rahm Emanuel is a Democratic Party elder, having served in the Clinton and Obama Administrations and as mayor of his native Chicago for two terms. He’s a centrist known for valuing political wins over ideology, making it especially notable that Emanuel recently gave a blistering speech in Israel, calling the country’s path “not sustainable politically.” He says that the United States should no longer grant Israel unconditional military support, and explains his own plan for a diplomatic Middle East solution that he calls a “twenty-three-state solution.” Emanuel, who hasn’t formally announced but appears to have embarked on a campaign for the 2028 Presidency, defends his position on trans rights, which has angered many on the left, and his contention that the Democratic Party is overly concerned with identity politics.  Further reading:  “Trump and Rahm Emanuel Both Love a Fight, Especially Against Each Other,” by Susan B. Glasser. “Rahm Emanuel’s Lessons for Hilary Clinton,” by Benjamin Wall

The Washington Roundtable discusses Donald Trump’s latest attempt to relitigate the 2020 election. In a prime-time speech on Thursday, he argued that newly declassified documents suggest that U.S. election systems are vulnerable. “He described interference in the election in alarming terms,” the staff writer Jane Mayer says. “But there was absolutely no final bottom line where he was able to prove that a single vote was stolen.” The panel explores how false claims about past elections could serve as a pretext for federal intervention in the midterms, especially if issues like the war with Iran continue to depress the President’s approval rating and hurt Republicans’ chances. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave Regan, the president of the prominent California union S.E.I.U.-United Healthcare Workers West, joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss Proposition 40, a ballot measure that would impose a one-time, five-per-cent tax on the net worth of the state’s billionaires. They talk about the origins of the initiative—which came in response to cuts to health care from Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act—and how the political fight over the proposition fits into the broader wave of populist politics and a growing appetite for challenging the wealthy. They also explore the opposition from a handful of wealthy Silicon Valley figures, who have spent more than a hundred million dollars to defeat the measure. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and some health-care organizations have expressed concerns that the tax could drive the ultra-wealthy out of the state and would fail to provide a long-term funding solution for public services. Whether the ballot measure fails or passes, does the fight over Proposition 40 signal a