Despite hand-wringing among Democrats about Joe Biden’s age and his discouraging poll numbers, the President’s campaign for reëlection displays an “ostentatious level of serenity,” Evan Osnos says about the election. “This is a matter of great personal importance to Joe Biden. He feels almost, viscerally, this contempt for Trump and for what Trump did to the country,” Osnos tells David Remnick, after a rare private interview at the White House. “And let’s remember, he didn’t just try to steal this election—from Biden’s perspective—he tried to steal it from him.” Although Biden once referred to himself as a “bridge” President, he told Osnos that he had never considered stepping aside after one term. His gait has slowed, but Osnos found the President quick to jab at his questions and at “you guys” in the media, whom he blames for naysaying his campaign. But alongside complacent media coverage, threats to the President’s reëlection are many. The war in Gaza has alienated many voters from Biden, especially in Arab American communities, and it resonates even more widely. “When Houthi rebels started firing rockets at ships in the Red Sea,” Osnos points out, “it had an immediate effect on global shipping, to the point that it could have, and could yet still, push inflation back up. . . . I know this is the worst cliché in journalism, but this election has an element that is beyond anything we’ve ever really dealt with before.”
Is a “Win-Win” Still Possible in Policing?
Sybrina Fulton: “Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Anybody’s Son”
From On the Media: We Don’t Talk About Leonard Leo
Is there a Path Forward for Gaza and Israel?
”Fellow Travelers”: A Showtime Series Explores a Forgotten Witch Hunt
Spike Lee on His “Dream Project,” a Joe Louis Bio-Pic
Rodrigo Duterte’s Deadly Promise
Werner Herzog Defends His “Ecstatic” Approach to the Truth
Rubén Blades Wasn’t Supposed to Be a Salsa Star
Al Gore on the Climate Crisis: “We Have a Switch We Can Flip”
Introducing Critics at Large: The Myth-Making of Elon Musk
Should Biden Push for Regime Change in Russia?
Olivia Rodrigo Talks with David Remnick
Hernan Diaz’s “Trust,” a Novel of High Finance
Kelly Clarkson on Writing About Divorce
Naomi Klein Speaks with Jia Tolentino about “Doppelganger”
A Solution For the Chronically Homeless, and Listening to Taylor Swift in Prison
Richard Brody Makes the Case for Keeping Your DVDs
A Master Class with David Grann
Alone and on Foot in Antarctica
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Should This Exist?
Without Fail
Hannibal Buress
Longform
Conversations