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Mad House: How Donald Trump, MAGA Mean Girls, a Former Used Car Salesman, a Florida Nepo Baby, and a Man with Rats in His Walls Broke Congress Audiobook
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An exclusive fly-on-the-wall account of the epic dysfunction of the American Congress, from the rotating cast of failed Speakers to the MAGA efforts to impeach President Joe Biden to the insanity of the 2024 presidential race—by the star congressional reporters at The New York Times
“Mad House contains cyanide and candy on every page, which proves to be a killer combo. I loved it.”—Mark Leibovich, author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers This Town and Thank You for Your Servitude
The United States Congress has always been messy and far-from-august, but as Annie Karni and Luke Broadwater show here, in scorching, shocking detail, it has reached some kind of chaotic bottom. The anarchy that reigned over Congress’s lower chamber in the wake of the January 6th attack on the Capitol Building—the election of serial liar and con-man George Santos, revenge porn being shown on the floor of the house, and the theatrical high jinks of Lauren Boebert—all were a sign of decay and dysfunction of the highest order. Even the members of the 118th Congress would admit it was a circus—but up close, the spectacle was more alarming than funny.
Taking the reader into closed door meetings as House Republicans, in thrall to a cult of personality, bumble ever deeper into extremism, and sniping House Democrats lose faith in their President, the authors reveal a level of disorder that we have never seen before. Mad House is a searing, rollicking, and deeply reported portrait of a body at war with itself, riven by pettiness, egomania, and score-settling, and defined by the truly unbelievable antics of people like Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Jim Jordan, who, handed the reins of power, attempted to actually govern a country. They did the bare minimum but voters in the 2024 elections rewarded them nonetheless, giving MAGA Republicans control of the White House, the Senate, and the House—and delivering to President Donald Trump a malleable Congress of loyalists there to serve. If you want a peek at what the next four years might look like, there’s no better place to start than the dysfunction that led us here.
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"New York Times politics reporters Karni and Broadwater, who cover Congress, paint a detailed picture of what one veteran Republican representative called a ‘shitshow.’ . . . Nancy Mace, George Santos, Jim Jordan, and many others come in for a drubbing, though Karni and Broadwater take time to review the endless series of Democratic Party mistakes that led to Joe Biden’s running against Trump in 2024 for as long as he did before dropping out. Much more fun than the Mueller Report, but just as damning."
— Kirkus Reviews
Quotes
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Every so often, a book comes along that makes you feel extremely hopeful about America. This is not one of those books. Mad House contains cyanide and candy on every page, which proves to be a killer combo. I loved it.
— Mark Leibovich, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Thank You for Your Servitude -
Every so often, a book comes along that makes you feel extremely hopeful about America. This is not one of those books. Mad House contains cyanide and candy on every page, which proves to be a killer combo. I loved it.
— Mark Leibovich, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Thank You for Your Servitude -
Annie Karni and Luke Broadwater are two of the best congressional reporters in the business, and this dishy, fly-on-the-wall chronicle of the 118th Congress is neon proof. Mad House is an organized account of utter bedlam, a flamboyant tale of the House’s most outlandish members—their vanities, idiosyncrasies, rivalries, and devil’s pacts—that both beguiles and horrifies. It’s one of the most involving books about politics I’ve read in a long while.
— Jennifer Senior, New York Times bestselling author of All Joy and No Fun and winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing -
A field guide for those struggling to understand how the U.S. Congress got quite this crazy, Mad House by Luke Broadwater and Annie Karni also happens to be a delight to read—a vivid, deeply reported, and frequently entertaining account of the grifters, con men, and merely ambitious pols who populate the Capitol in this age of Trump. It’s a must-read for the Republican-ruled Washington that looms in 2025.
— Susan Glasser, New Yorker staff writer and co-author of the New York Times bestsellers The Divider and The Man Who Ran Washington -
New York Times politics reporters Karni and Broadwater, who cover Congress, paint a detailed picture of what one veteran Republican representative called a ‘shitshow’ . . . Nancy Mace, George Santos, Jim Jordan, and many others come in for a drubbing, though Karni and Broadwater take time to review the endless series of Democratic Party mistakes that led to Joe Biden’s running against Trump in 2024 for as long as he did before dropping out. Much more fun than the Mueller Report, but just as damning.
— Kirkus Reviews
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