This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden, and the Battle for America's Future

by Jonathan Martin, Alexander Burns

Overview

The “blockbuster” (The Guardian) New York Times bestseller, a shocking, definitive account of the 2020 election and the first year of the Biden presidency by two New York Times reporters, exposes the deep fissures within both parties as the country approaches a political breaking point.

This is the authoritative, “deeply reported” (The Wall Street Journal) account of an eighteen-month crisis in American democracy that will be seared into the country’s political memory for decades to come. With stunning, in-the-room detail, New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns show how both our political parties confronted a series of national traumas, including the coronavirus pandemic, the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and the political brinksmanship of President Biden’s first year in the White House.

From Donald Trump’s assault on the 2020 election and his ongoing campaign of vengeance against his fellow Republicans to the behind-the-scenes story of Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate and his bitter struggles to unite the Democratic Party, this book exposes the degree to which the two-party system has been strained to the point of disintegration. More than at any time in recent history, the long-established traditions and institutions of American politics are under siege as a set of aging political leaders struggle to hold together the changing country.

Martin and Burns break news on most every page, drawing on hundreds of interviews and never-before-seen documents and recordings from the highest levels of government. This “masterful” (George Stephanopoulos) book asks the vitally important (and disturbing) question: can American democracy, as we know it, ever work again?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982172497
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	05/02/2023
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	304,235
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Martin is a senior political columnist for POLITICO. A native of Arlington, Virginia, Martin is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College.

Alexander Burns is the associate editor for global politics and a columnist at Politico, and a political analyst for CNN. Born and raised in New York City, Burns is a graduate of Harvard College, where he edited the Harvard Political Review.

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/23/2022

New York Times reporters Martin and Burns debut with an impressively sourced and consistently revealing chronicle of America’s “political emergency” in the months between the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and the start of President Biden’s second year in office. To an unusual degree for books covering similar subject matter, the authors get lawmakers, congressional staffers, and campaign operatives from both parties on the record. What emerges is a clear-eyed and often dramatic portrait of two major political parties animated as much by internal divisions as by cross-aisle discord. During the January 6 Capitol insurrection, the authors reveal, the loudest voice demanding President Trump’s impeachment was Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney; meanwhile, her Senate colleague Ted Cruz was rallying other hard-liners to continue opposing certification of the 2020 election, despite the day’s violence. On the Democratic side, the authors spotlight how the tenuous détente between progressives and centrists that helped bring Biden to the White House broke down almost as soon as he took office, dooming his Build Back Better bill and complicating his dynamic with Vice President Kamala Harris. Revelations abound—of Kevin McCarthy’s initial plan to call on Trump to resign after the Capitol riot; of Republican efforts to lure Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema into switching parties—as do sharp character sketches. Politics junkies should consider this required reading. (May)

Publishers Weekly

One recent history makes different points and has larger themes. This Will Not Pass by Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns captures the insularity of Washington and the closed-off nature of the conversations that consume it. It is deeply reported, with sourcing from both parties and criticisms of both, which is refreshing. It also captures both parties’ refusal to be honest with their own voters."
— The Wall Street Journal

"A blockbuster. Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns deliver 473 pages of essential reading."
— The Guardian

"The authors are tireless reporters, and the book’s impact lies less in any headline revelations than in the accumulation of small details that can almost seem routine but that reveal the deeper condition of American democracy.... It’s a document of decline and fall—a chronicle that should cause future readers to ponder how American leaders in the early 21st century lost the ability and will to govern."
— George Packer, The Atlantic

"A deeply reported new book... paints an authoritative portrait of the Biden-Harris relationship— or absence of one."— The New York Times

"It [is with] this color and detail where Martin and Burns excel. They give the scenes and add the specificities of the moments ......when moral virtue and civic interest yield to pure opportunism. ......It is still uncertain how what the two authors describe as “an existential battle for the survival of the democratic system” will end. But whenever future historians chronicle the final result, they won’t need to engage in any guesswork or speculation. They can simply open the pages of This Will Not Pass and discover who met the moment and who fell short."
— New York Magazine

"Burns and Martin provide a diligently researched and often illuminating chronicle of America’s recent political degeneration. Much of it boils down to the absence of character."
— Financial Times

"Martin and Burns have chronicled a tumultuous time with precision and scope and their tireless reporting unearths revealing new details. Their wide-angle lens reminds us how much was— and remains— at stake. Masterful!"
— George Stephanopoulos, ABC News anchor

“What an account of these extraordinary times. Martin and Burns deliver reporting from deep inside both parties with fresh facts and new details on nearly every page about a political system pushed to the brink. When future historians chronicle this time of crisis they will turn to this book as a deeply valuable account of our all too human leaders.”
— Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal

"This is an enthralling and at times frightening account that weaves together the Trump implosion and the roller coaster ride of Biden’s first year. Deeply reported, it combines amazing inside scoops with a fine feel for the historic forces that have roiled our times. By helping us understand what happened, it provides insight about where we are heading.”
— Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Code Breaker

"Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin are two of our best sourced, most insightful and honest chroniclers of American politics. Their book takes us not only through those harrowing final days of the Trump-era but is the first to deeply explore the central tension of President Biden’s presidency thus far: that of a man who is trying to balance 'national reconciliation' with his 'aspiration to craft a presidency of grand and lasting impact.' The writing, full of luscious details and newsy nuggets, allows the reader an 'in the room where it happened' experience."
— Amy Walter, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter

"An impressively sourced and consistently revealing chronicle of America’s 'political emergency' in the months between the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and the start of President Biden’s second year in office...What emerges is a clear-eyed and often dramatic portrait of two major political parties animated as much by internal divisions as by cross-aisle discord....Revelations abound—of Kevin McCarthy’s initial plan to call on Trump to resign after the Capitol riot; of Republican efforts to lure Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema into switching parties—as do sharp character sketches. Politics junkies should consider this required reading."
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Red meat for politics watchers, unsparing in its depiction of a time of torment."
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

From the Publisher

★ 2022-05-03
Newsworthy look at the last months of the Trump White House and the first of the Biden administration.

Early in the pages of this hard-hitting account by New York Times reporters Martin and Burns, the Democratic chair of the House Armed Services Committee voices doubt that Donald Trump was interested in or even capable of mounting a coup, adding, “my perception is, he is a fucking moron.” The events of Jan. 6, 2021, told a different story. Trump had never even bothered to pretend that he governed for all Americans, instead cultivating a reactionary, rural, White base and an ethos within the White House that followed “the logic of a protection racket, more or less.” That Joe Biden won while Republicans gained seats in Congress speaks to the ineptitude of Trump and company. Still, as the authors observe, Biden has had difficulty shaping a coherent message, some of it perhaps caused by his initial uncertainty about whether his running mate was right for the job. “During the primary,” write the authors, “Biden privately and repeatedly shared versions of a common observation about [Kamala] Harris: She doesn’t seem to know who she wants to be.” Martin and Burns deliver plenty of news, such as Lindsey Graham’s demand that Trump call off the Capitol rioters or face the invocation of the 25th Amendment. The authors also offer nuanced portraits of some of the key players in this saga: Mitch McConnell, ever exercising a political calculus by which he could deem Trump a “despicable human being” yet twice vote against impeaching him; Kevin McCarthy, so hungry for power that he allowed that Trump bore responsibility for the coup attempt yet rushed to declare fealty to the boss; Lisa Murkowski, who expressed wonder that so many Americans believe the 2020 election was stolen and questions that calculus of McConnell’s, saying of the impeachment vote, “I wish that it had been different.”

Red meat for politics watchers, unsparing in its depiction of a time of torment.

Kirkus Reviews