RETRIBUTION

A new standard in presidential recklessness.

Other reporters beat this respected ABC newsman to press, but the scoops in his 2024 campaign book were worth the wait. Though last fall’s election results prevented a special counsel investigating Donald Trump from showing his findings in court, Karl’s reporting fills in some blanks. He presents previously unpublished handwritten notes by Mike Pence that describe Trump’s rash behavior on January 6, 2021; details on how Trump “spent most of the afternoon—scrolling through Twitter—as his supporters attacked the Capitol”; and statements that a top Trump staffer, “shocked” by his handling of secret documents, made to prosecutors. Facing this opponent, Democrats found time to accuse one another of subterfuge. Remember Joe Biden’s July 2024 letter telling Democrats to quit trying to oust him as the nominee? “I don’t think he wrote it,” Nancy Pelosi tells Karl. And count Hunter Biden among those who “believed Barack Obama was somehow behind” George Clooney’s op-ed asking Biden to bow out. Striving for “a definitive account,” Karl revisits risible episodes (Whither “childless cat ladies”?) and all-caps social media rage that some readers might rather forget. But there’s a silver lining: It all could have been much worse. Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, tells Karl that if he hadn’t been imprisoned for contempt of Congress when a would-be assassin shot at Trump, he would’ve tried to incite unrest by “throwing fucking gasoline on” the smoldering tension. And yet, Karl reminds us, Trump has said he wouldn’t mind the murder of reporters, and in his second term he’s a potentially “more consequential, more radical” president, attacking his enemies, courts, anti-corruption laws, and aid programs. Maybe he won’t “topple American democracy, but he has shown how it can be done.” Karl’s warning stands atop powerful evidence.

A journalist unearths information revealing that the president is even more dangerous than previously thought.