The Plague Year: America in the Time of Covid

by Lawrence Wright

The crowd filled the Mall, reaching from the Ellipse all the way to the Washington Monument, recently reopened after years of repairs following an earthquake in 2011. “All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened and radical left Democrats, which is what they’re doing, and stolen by the fake news media,” Trump said when he took the stage, backed by a bank of American flags, and behind that, the majestic White House. “We will never give up. We will never concede….We’re going to have to fight much harder and Mike Pence is going to have to come through for us. And if he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country….We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength.”