'This Will Not Pass': Chronicling America's imperiled democracy

(This conversation originally aired on June 9, 2022) “Let me be very clear to all of you, and I've been very clear to the president. He bears responsibilities for his words and actions, no ifs, ands or buts. I asked him personally today, does he hold responsibility for what happened? Does he feel bad about what happened? He told me he does have some responsibility for what happened and he needs to acknowledge that.” — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, speaking with fellow Republicans about Donald Trump’s culpability for the attack on the Capital on January 6th 2021. The House Select Committee investigating that attack and efforts to overturn the election held its first public hearing on the 9th of June, 2022. It was a prime-time event, viewed by 20 million people. Today, on this archive edition of Midday, we’re going to listen to a conversation Tom had, on the afternoon of that first hearing, with New York Times national correspondent Alexander Burns. With his Times colleague, Jonathan Martin, Alex has written a compelling and comprehensive book about the last year of the Trump administration, including the months preceding the insurrection, through the first months of the Biden Administration. Burns and Martin make a strong case for the fragility of the basic architecture of American Democracy. They argue that government cannot function in a two-party system in which neither party is internally coherent and serious about governing. Their book is full of excellent reporting and trenchant insights. And given, what we have all since learned from testimony by many witnesses presented by the January 6th Select Committee, we thought it would be interesting to re-visit Tom's conversation with Alex, and think about all that led up to that terrible day, in which for the first time in our history, we did not experience a peaceful transfer of power between one administration and the next. The book is called This Will Not Pass:  Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America’s Future.  Alexander Burns joined us on the phone from Washington, DCEmail us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.