Capitulation Nation

Capitulation under Trump 2.0 has been devastating to the rule of law. To review a couple of lowlights: One of the nation’s leading lawyers, Brad Karp, cut a deal with Donald Trump in the first days of the bully-in-chief’s second administration that turned out to constitute five flabby bullet points on an unsigned piece of paper. Chief Justice John Roberts is pretending the president is a generic Republican.

Dahlia Lithwick talks to Jacob Weisberg about his new book, Profiles in Cowardice, which examines the flawed individuals leading institutions that were meant to hold the line in Trump's second term but instead gave up almost instantly. They unpack the law firm Paul, Weiss' capitulation in an "agreement" with Trump that protects nobody, Chief Justice John Roberts' fatal bet that the Supreme Court can preserve its prestige while the Justice Department defies federal judges, and Senate enthusiast Mitch McConnell's self-defeating legacy of remaking a judiciary that empowered a president to sideline the Senate entirely. Dahlia and Jacob also examine the first signs of a countervailing force, from Harvard's refusal to make a deal to the question of what Joint Chiefs chairman Dan Caine will do if tested around the midterms.

Jacob Weisberg's book is Profiles in Cowardice: A Study of Collaboration in the Trump Era, published by Penguin Press.

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