As I read Grisham’s book, I kept thinking that it felt, in some ways, like the story of the Trump presidency was less about one demagogue than it was about the everyday choices of the smaller people working at the levels below policy-making, and how run-of-the-mill self-centeredness and expediency, when practiced by dozens or hundreds of people in an organization, amounts to the system that allows evil. The Trump administration was not possible because of Trump and his brain trust, as it were. It was possible because of the people like Grisham who let them, in minor and individual ways, function.[clearing throat]
AND BECAUSE OF JOURNALISTS LIKE YOU WHO TREATED ALL OF THESE PEOPLE AS TREASURED SOURCES TO BE CODDLED AND PROTECTED AND WHOSE REHABILITATION TOURS YOU ARE AIDING EVEN NOW ENSURING NO ONE WILL FACE ANY CONSEQUENCES EVER