David is a professor of History and of Journalism & Media Studies at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, and a frequent commentator in the national news media on contemporary politics and public affairs. He specializes in American political and cultural history. His most recent book, Republic of Spin: An Inside History of the American Presidency (W.W. Norton, 2016) examines the rise of the White House spin machine, from the Progressive Era to the present day, and the debates that Americans have waged over its implications for democracy.
A flurry of subpoenas targeting top lieutenants and a court affirming lawmakers' investigating powers have sent Donald Trump a decisive message as he seeks to run down the clock on the January 6 insurrection probe: you cannot escape justice forever.
President Joe Biden is arriving back at the White House in the biggest presidency-defining moment of his nine-month-old term, which has so far been tested at home and abroad.
Clearly Biden's honeymoon is over and the Democratic internecine squabbling has taken a toll. How much [of] a toll remains to be seen.
But the investigation is important for more direct, material, and concrete reasons. It is already establishing a fuller and more comprehensive picture of who in Trump's administration and orbit was involved in the planning of the January 6 riot, what they did to bring it about, and what they hoped or expected would happen.