Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The vital inside account of American democracy in its darkest hour, from the rise of autocracy unleashed by Trump to the January 6 insurrection, and a warning that those forces remain as potent as ever—from the congressman who led the first impeachment of Donald J. Trump

“Engaging and informative . . . a manual for how to probe and question power, how to hold leaders accountable in a time of diminishing responsibility.”—The Washington Post

With a new afterword by the author

In the years leading up to the election of Donald Trump, Congressman Adam Schiff had already been sounding the alarm over the resurgence of autocracy around the world, and the threat this posed to the United States. But as he led the probe into Donald Trump’s Russia and Ukraine-related abuses of presidential power, Schiff came to the terrible conclusion that the principal threat to American democracy now came from within.
 
In Midnight in Washington, Schiff argues that the Trump presidency has so weakened our institutions and compromised the Republican Party that the peril will last for years, requiring unprecedented vigilance against the growing and dangerous appeal of authoritarianism. The congressman chronicles step-by-step just how our democracy was put at such risk, and traces his own path to meeting the crisis—from serious prosecutor, to congressman with an expertise in national security and a reputation for bipartisanship, to liberal lightning rod, scourge of the right, and archenemy of a president. Schiff takes us inside his team of impeachment managers and their desperate defense of the Constitution amid the rise of a distinctly American brand of autocracy.
 
Deepening our understanding of prominent public moments, Schiff reveals the private struggles, the internal conflicts, and the triumphs of courage that came with defending the republic against a lawless president—but also the slow surrender of people that he had worked with and admired to the dangerous immorality of a president engaged in an historic betrayal of his office. Schiff’s fight for democracy is one of the great dramas of our time, told by the man who became the president’s principal antagonist. It is a story that began with Trump but does not end with him, taking us through the disastrous culmination of the presidency and Schiff’s account of January 6, 2021, and how the antidemocratic forces Trump unleashed continue to define his party, making the future of democracy in America more uncertain than ever.

Our Top Reviews

Reviewer: Zoey Roosevelt
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: If The Failure Was Ours, Exactly Where Did We Go Wrong?
Review: This memoir starts with the insurrection and ends with what Trump’s second impeachment tells America about whom we have become.To establish a connection to readers, and to set the stage as all memoirs do, Schiff tells us whom he was before becoming a congressional representative.Throughout this book, he demonstrates that he is humorous, compassionate a master at one of my favorite tools (verbal judo),Throughout this story, Schiff also is great at describing not only the key players in Trump’s agenda; he also beautifully describes everyone closest to him, including family and those he works with.When Trump started calling him names like “sleazy”, one of his first concerns was his 14-year-old son, who was at camp during that public insult. So, when his son had returned, the first thing Schiff did was to sit him down and tell him what the former president called him.He wanted to protect his son.But his son’s response was, “Can I call you sleazy?” Schiff’s response was, “Okay, but you will be “Sleazy Junior.” In this exchange, he showed that he is human, compassionate, and funny.And he demonstrated time and again, throughout the impeachment trials that he is a verbal judo master. During the first impeachment trial, when Nadler was lied about, again and again, Nadler desperately tried to push back, as a boxer might do. And Schiff, being in charge and used to the attacks, initially quelled the disruption that could have happened – until Nadler couldn’t take it anymore. His abrupt takeover of the podium gave the media fodder for a few days.During the first impeachment trial meetings, when Schiff said to his managers, “If anyone raises concerns about our process on this, … they could blame me.” Congresswoman Val Demings’ humorous response was, “Why not? Everyone else is.”And when he waited too long during the first impeachment trial to see a dentist for a toothache, he was inspired by one of the managers to use his tooth pain to inspire his focus on the trial – until he waited too long and needed a root canal, and was fortunate enough to get that on the weekend.While his day-to-day experiences in this memoir truly draw readers into what he shares, readers never forget that this is a story of how good people were persuaded to abandon their beliefs to support Trump’s agenda, and how this has and continues to put America at peril.The title of this book seems to come from two areas. He uses midnight as a metaphor for where the country finds itself after the third impeachment in our history, after the first impeachment trial without a witness or documents. Midnight, as I recall from reading this memoir, is his favorite time of that day, where so many changes occur. And there was that infamous “Midnight Run,” when Congressman Devin Nunes desperately took an Uber to the White House to get “alternate facts” that would discredit Former Director of the FBI, James Comey’s testimony.From the Russian involvement here are some highlights:1. April 2016, Russians secretly communicated with the Trump campaign through George Papadopulos that they possessed stolen Clinton emails;2. June 2016, Russians inform Don, Jr. in a meeting at Trump Tower, which was attended by Don Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort, that they could help his father in the election, with the stolen emails.;3. Russians used WikiLeaks to announce the Clinton emails:4. June 27, 2016, Trump encouraged Moscow with is, “… if you are listening, I hope you’re able to find the thirty thousand emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press;”5. Roger Stone intimidated the witnesses;6. Coordination of the leaks by Don Jr., along with a large social media campaign;7. Paul Manafort held meetings with Russian intelligent agent, Kilimnik, where he gave this agent sensitive internal campaign polling information;8. Obama imposed sanctions on Russian for its interference, yet afterward, Michael Flynn met with Sergey Kislyak to undermine the bipartisan policy in the United States;9. Trump continued to work with Russia, in hopes of sealing a deal for a Trump Tower in Moscow; and,10. Michael Cohen regularly spoke on the phone with Dmitry Peskov, regarding the Trump Tower in Moscow project.While this demonstrated that the Russians successfully meddled in U.S. democracy and that our intelligence agencies concluded that Russia would do this again, Trump and his circle did everything to ignore the intelligence agencies.Off-camera, and in passing, Republicans were telling Schiff to keep investigating Trump and Russia.And after Trump fired FBI Director Comey, Trump celebrated this by having the Russian Foreign Minister and the Russian Ambassador over at the Oval Office. No U.S. Press were allowed to attend that party. But one state-run Russian news agency was allowed to attend. They took pictures during that party.As the investigations against Trump continued, he went out of his way to create counternarratives to put the focus on the FBI, Hillary Clinton, Mueller, and anyone else who disagreed with him.Standing next to Putin in Helsinki, when asked by journalists to denounce the Russian attacks against our democracy, Trump said he didn’t see any reason why Russia would be responsible for hacking our election. His public comments infuriated even Fox News. And after those comments, Trump had everyone but the interpreters leave the room, so he could privately talk to Putin.He publicly made Russia more important than America.When the Mueller Report came out, Attorney General William Barr, who had replaced Sessions, summarized the report, in his own words. This was not necessary, because Mueller had already provided a summary. But Barr’s summary was written and presented to the public, in an effort to protect Trump.Then there’s the withholding of millions in military aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden. Trump told the president of Ukraine to work with Attorney General Barr to get dirt on the Bidens, and to Ukraine, not Russia interfered with the election. At this point, the Rubicon had been crossed, and Congressman Schiff decided to move forward with the impeachment proceedings.As the truth continued to come out, this memoir shows how desperate Trump became – so desperate that he fired anyone who did not “kiss his ring.”He even took to the air, threatening witnesses that if they didn’t support his agenda, they too would experience his raft.The more he lost, the more threats he hurled on everyone.Then, weeks before the insurrection, the Trump campaign spent millions on advertising, “Stop the Steal.” This was followed by an invitation to come to Washington for a big protest on the day of the joint session. He promised in this invitation that this would be “wild.” He also told the crowd at the National Mall, that they needed to “fight like hell” if they were going to save our country.Though House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called Trump during the insurrection, to beg for his help, Trump’s response was, “Well, Kevin. I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.”This demonstrates that Trump encouraged this insurrection.It is interesting to note here that afterward, Trump said he was exercising his First Amendment rights when he told his followers to “fight like hell.”He ignores the fact that for a private citizen, that would have a different meaning than this coming from a president. The analogy in this memoir is like a fire chief ignoring a burning house, versus a private citizen with no power to extinguish that fire, walking away from that fire.The fire chief would have been immediately fired. Trump should have been removed, and probative evidence along with witnesses in both trials, as in all trials should have been allowed. But, because Congress’ oversight and impeachment powers had been taken from them, due to Trump and those who allowed his threats to make them betray themselves, Right Will Have to Wait.I enjoyed reading this book because it truly walks readers beyond what we saw in the media, and inspires readers to own their voice, even if it means that others lack the moral strength to honor their core values.By walking readers through the mindset and dialogues of senators, congressional representatives, and other key legislative members, I hope that those who minimized what was happening, and the risk on our democracy, will find a way to rethink the clarion bell that this memoir expresses.The only thing that gave me pause in reading this was some of the acronyms were not clearly explained the first time they were used.Otherwise, thank you for carrying your skill at speaking to your audience into this memoir.

Reviewer: Ocean Gal
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Excellent Book about Trump Presidency
Review: I purchased this book to read shortly after it was released, but i just ready it recently due to life stuff. While I was aware of most of the facts and I had watched the January 6th Special Committee hearings, it was good to review the information prior to the upcoming presidential election. Representative Schiff is a talented writer, being able to weave a lot of factual information into an interesting read. I also enjoyed his talking about his history prior to and while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Reviewer: amachinist
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Witness for the Prosecution and Protector of the Constitution
Review: Adam Schiff writes dramtically. Indeed, he provides the reader a front row seat for some of the most critical events in US history. The book begins with the January 6 insurrection in Washington, DC. Schiff is in the Capitol Building awaiting the certification of Biden’s election when the insurrectionists enter the building. The police tell members of Congress to don gas masks and find a place to hide.Schiff creates an accurate timeline of Trumpian misdeeds that lead to the filing of Articles of Impeachment. The reader reviews the testimony about withholding military aid to the Ukraine. There are heros and heroines as well as perjurors under testimony. This results in the preparation for the Articles of Impeachment for the first round of impeachment trials. Go behind the scenes as Schiff leads a team of fellow House members to prove that the President committed treasonable acts and deserved to be impeached. Along the way, Schiff shares autobiographical information on the upbringing, education and experiences of this remarkable man.The drama continues with the second impeachment trial relating to Trump’s incitement of the insurrection on January 6. Step by step, the reader hears the testimony of both sides and the response of both memebers of the House and Senate to deliver a verdict. There will be a time, when historians review these sordid events. They will certainly turn to Schiff’s work as a primary source of events when the US almost ceased to be a democracy. It is so well worth a read for those who love our country.

Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: I knew the outcome, but still I was riveted! Essential historical record.
Review: I watch US politics from afar, with a feverish need to find some hope that the almost unbelievable destruction of democracy being wrought by Trump and his enablers was being fought off successfully by the “good guys”. The 1st & 2nd impeachments brought to the fore members of Congress that most people would not otherwise know about, and along with Speaker Pelosi and others who stepped up to speak out, demonstrated that there were good people who also had the skills and tenacity to make enough of a difference, but more importantly to model ethics and courage. It was surprising to find that Adam Schiff comes across in this book as just the person I had thought he was from his impeachment performance, media interviews etc. – a nice surprise in these times when many people in the public eye seem inauthentic and willing to say and do anything, whether it is what they believe or completely opposed to what they said last week, and will say in a month or so! The book is an essential historical record of a singular window in time, told compellingly by someone who was “in the room where it happened”. No-one else could have told this particular story and it is important that he has – it is for others to cover other angles and fill in the gaps, but unless they are one of the “good guys”, I will not be putting my money down to read it! I found it interesting to go behind the scenes, and hear first hand how it was to see former seemingly “good” people transform into whatever it is the GOP has become.

Reviewer: Louna
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A riveting account of what led up to the impeachments of Donald Trump by Adam Schiff who was the one congressman mainly responsible for the congressional team investigating possible crimes of criminal behavior and obstruction as well as quid pro quo of Trump and presentations to the Senate for trial after the Mueller report and the first impeachment. Adam Schiff is a brilliant author, eloquent in his explanations of procedures of American government. A man with a moral compass and ethical in both his private and public life. The book is a marvelous and comprehensive lesson on how Congress conducts government. No high school or college course has been taught to the American students and could not be learned unless one becomes a scholar of the Constitution or enters congressional service. Unless these lessons are taught to all students we will never understand how our government really works, why things take so long to happen and be realized and more importantly, to be judicated fairly in favor of the greater good of the American people. A must read to truly understand the state of health of the American dream and the experiment in democracy.

Reviewer: Sharon Broski
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: It was a very informative book describing behind the scenes with government officials that hadto run for cover during the January 6th riot at the Capital and how we almost lost our democracythat day as well as details behind the scenes when the first impeachment of President Trump wasconducted. It was a page turner for me and a good read.

Reviewer: Coleen martin
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I am a Canadian and watched the Trump show for 4 years in disgust. How fortunate for the US to have reps like Adam Schiff ..I am in awe of his patriotism and truth telling. How blessed the World is to have people of his character alive in these times.. God bless you Adam Schiff

Reviewer: Diane Watt
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I bought this for my sisters christmas. It was so good she read it in 4 days now I am reading it. It is one of the best political books that I have read

Reviewer: Hazel Gairns
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A brilliantly written accounting of the dark and corrupt administration of the 45th President; the complicit and rapid decay of the majority of the GOP, and the gut-wrenchingly difficult challenges of holding them to account. The whole world will benefit from the integrity and backbone of truth-tellers like Adam Schiff!

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