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Welcome back to The Best & The Brightest: Impolitic, coming at you this evening as I make my way to EWR—roughly 900 miles from Milwaukee, site of the Republican National Convention, and 30 miles or so from Bedminster, where Donald Trump spent much of the day recovering from an act of political violence whose ultimate electoral consequences are unknown (and unknowable) but that history will surely record as a defining moment in the 2024 presidential election—and this entire turbulent, toxic, all too often apocalyptic-feeling era in American politics and culture.
The failed attempt on Trump’s life, its short- and long-term political implications, and the monumental questions it raises about the campaign ahead are, naturally, the topics of this week’s column.
But first…
🎧 Essential listening: Last week on Impolitic With John Heilemann, we cranked out two more cracking-good episodes, which you’re gonna want to check out if you haven’t already. The first, with my old pal Jonathan Freedland of The Guardian and the BBC, offered a panoramic tour d’horizon of politics across the pond (i.e., the U.K. and French elections) and the view from Europe of our Trump vs. Joe Biden contest. The second was with James Carville. We taped right after Biden’s high-stakes post-NATO Summit press conference—which, no surprise, did nothing to disabuse the Ragin’ Cajun of his long-held conviction that his party needs to “reshuffle the deck” by replacing Biden if it wants to defeat Trump in November.
Also, my colleague Tara Palmeri worked overtime this weekend taping an emergency episode of her podcast, Somebody’s Gotta Win, about last night’s horror show. Listen here, or enjoy the edited transcript here.
🎙️ Programming note: I’ll be recording the podcast from Milwaukee this week with an assortment of sharp, savvy, plugged-in guests—Tim Miller, Alyssa Farah, Stuart Stevens, and more—offering takes that aren’t just fresh and piping hot but also enhanced and enriched by their long histories working in Republican politics, behind the scenes at G.O.P. conventions, and even (in Alyssa’s case) at the highest levels of Trumpworld. As always, fresh eps of the pod are available every Tuesday and Friday morning, but the easiest way to make sure you don’t miss ’em is to follow the show here or here or here.
And now, the main event…
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| A few minutes before the sharp pop-pop-pop of the would-be assassin’s bullets rang out in Butler, Pennsylvania, at 6:12 p.m. last night, I had just finished my second reading of Tim Alberta’s much-discussed magnum opus in The Atlantic on the Trump campaign. When it comes to the G.O.P. and the right more broadly, there’s no long-form journalist in the business better than Alberta, whose work is, as a rule, deeply reported, beautifully written, and perfectly timed. And this new piece is no exception. It features the Trump campaign’s co-managers, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, boasting about the historic drubbing they believe they have in store for Joe Biden, while at the same time “privately praying” he doesn’t... |
