Surviving Autocracy

by Masha Gessen

The two of them were having two different conversations: Todd was trying to cover a major news story, which was that the new White House press secretary had lied to the public; Conway was setting the new terms of the conversation between the administration and the media. “You sent the press secretary out there to utter a falsehood on the smallest, pettiest thing,” Todd said. “I don’t think that anybody can prove the—” “And I don’t understand why you did it,” he persisted. “Look, I actually don’t think that—maybe this is me as a pollster, Chuck,” Conway said. “And you know data well. I don’t think you can prove those numbers one way or the other. There’s no way to really quantify crowds. We all know that. You can laugh at me all you want. But I’m very glad—” “I’m not laughing,” Todd said. “I’m just . . . befuddled. . . . What was the motive to have this ridiculous litigation of crowd size?”

This hurts my soul.