Trump-Biden Transition
Daily Comment
A Person of the Year: Jamie Raskin
How one politician devoted his fight for democracy to his lost son.
By David Remnick
The Political Scene
The Secret Life of the White House
The residence staff, many of whom have worked there for decades, balance their service of the First Family with their long-term loyalty to the house itself.
By Susannah Jacob
The Bench
Meet SG3: The Élite Legal Squad That Vowed to Safeguard the Election
Calling themselves the Three Amigos, a self-appointed legal SWAT team of former Solicitors General ran through all the Doomsday scenarios they could think of—except armed insurrection at the Capitol.
By Jane Mayer
Double Take
Sunday Reading: Trump’s Second Impeachment
From The New Yorker’s archive: a selection of pieces about the significance of impeachment.
By The New Yorker
Comment
What’s at Stake in Trump’s Second Impeachment Trial
The Republican Party isn’t ready to walk away from the former President, but the senators know how close the country came to catastrophe.
By Amy Davidson Sorkin
Free Speech Dept.
When Your Law-School Homework Is Stranger Than Fiction
RonNell Andersen Jones, a law professor at the University of Utah, can’t update the curriculum for her First Amendment seminar fast enough.
By Andrew Marantz
Shouts & Murmurs
The Biggest Changes to the White House Under President Joe Biden
Cords plugged back into phones in Oval Office; “World’s No. 1 President” crystal goblets gone; basement portal to Hell caulked over.
By Scott Jacobson, Todd Levin, Jason Roeder, Mike Sacks, and Ted Travelstead
Our Columnists
The Risks of Trump’s Impeachment Trial
Given the importance of condemning Trump’s destructive actions, the message sent by an acquittal may be worse than no trial.
By Jeannie Suk Gersen
U.S. Journal
When Reporting Becomes a Defense for Rioting
John Sullivan claims that he was at the Capitol insurrection as a neutral journalist. Others say he was a riot chaser who urged the mob to “burn this shit down.”
By Andrew Marantz
Comment
Can Joe Biden Restore America’s Belief That Government Is Good for People?
Despite the gravity of the challenges ahead, President Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris are setting out with some distinct advantages.
By Margaret Talbot
Letter from Washington
Why McConnell Dumped Trump
After the Capitol assault—and after losing his perch as Majority Leader—the senator finally denounced the outgoing President. Was it a moral reckoning or yet another act of political self-interest?
By Jane Mayer
The Political Scene
The Week the Trump Supporters Disappeared
In Washington, D.C., our leaders sealed themselves off from a rebel force that didn’t arrive.
By Megan K. Stack
Daily Comment
Can Joe Biden Save American Catholicism from the Far Right?
Biden is the kind of flexible, independent-minded Catholic whom many bishops have spent their careers taking to task—and many progressive Catholics see as akin to themselves.
By Paul Elie
Daily Cartoon
Daily Cartoon: Thursday, January 21st
“Trump op-eds on the right, tell-alls on the left, and cartoons in the middle.”
By Peter Kuper
Daily Comment
“A Broken Land”: Biden and the True Costs of Unity
In launching his Presidency around the pursuit of unity, Biden will immediately face the hard political calculations of making it concrete.
By Evan Osnos
On and Off the Avenue
Jewel Tones and Bernie Sanders’s Mittens: Inauguration Day Fashion 2021
There was a collaborative choreography to the day’s aesthetic, with outfits that communicated President Joe Biden’s message of unity. And then there was the senator from Vermont, an anti-fashion icon.
By Rachel Syme
Daily Comment
Joe Biden’s Cancellation of the Keystone Pipeline Is a Landmark in the Climate Fight
The President has almost certainly settled one of this country’s greatest environmental battles, but he will also get to help decide the fates of two other critical fossil-fuel projects.
By Bill McKibben
Cultural Comment
The Best Inaugural Music Moments
Music is sometimes presented as a kind of impartial panacea. That’s a lot to ask of art, but it’s still a nice fantasy to indulge.
By Amanda Petrusich
Daily Comment
Trump Wanted a Big Sendoff—and Didn’t Get It
The Republican officials who usually act as extras at his rallies were attending the swearing in of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at the Capitol, where the real party was happening.
By Amy Davidson Sorkin
Our Columnists
Amanda Gorman’s Inaugural Poem Is a Stunning Vision of Democracy
“But while democracy can be periodically delayed / it can never be permanently defeated.”
By Masha Gessen