Ira Shapiro with Chris Marquette | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Type: Public event
Host: Ford School

Ira Shapiro with Chris Marquette

Author, "The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America"

Speaker

Ira Shapiro, Chris Marquette

Date & time

Oct 24, 2022, 6:00-7:00 pm EDT

Location

Weill Hall, Betty Ford Auditorium (1110)
725 S. State St., Ann Arbor

Author, Senate commentator, and former Hill staffer Ira Shapiro joins congressional ethics and accountability reporter for CQ Roll Call, Chris Marquette, for a discussion on Shapiro's new book, The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America, our current political climate, and the state of democracy in these fractious times.

Ford School students are invited to a career roundtable with Ira Shapiro on October 24 at 11:30am in 3240 Weill. Sign up for the career session here.   

About the speakers

Ira Shapiro spent the first half of his 45 year Washington career as a Senate staffer and Clinton administration trade ambassador before writing a series of books about the Senate which William A. Galston, Brookings scholar, calls an "epic trilogy." Mr. Shapiro's current book is The Betrayal: How Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans Abandoned America. Robert B. Reich said: "Ira Shapiro holds Mitch McConnell and the Republican Senate accountable for their deliberate and catastrophic failure to stop Donald Trump even when American lives and American democracy were at stake. A gripping narrative and a must-read." Ira's first book, The Last Great Senate: Courage and Statesmanship in Times of Crisis (2012), was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Richard A. Baker, Senate Historian emeritus, described it as "a historically and politically artistic work of great brilliance." Ira's second book, Broken: Can the Senate Save Itself and the Country? (2018), also received critical acclaim. Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State, called it "an unflinching account...which takes a wider lens to describe how dysfunction in the Senate helped open the door to Donald Trump."

Chris Marquette is a congressional ethics and accountability reporter for CQ Roll Call, where he covers the U.S. Capitol Police, the Jan. 6 select committee, ethics investigations and House Republicans. He uncovered a disturbing pattern of Capitol Police officer misconduct in which accused officers received light punishments from top department officials. Marquette has also covered financial regulation in Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Before joining CQ Roll Call, he covered education and government for Hearst newspapers in Connecticut. Marquette began his career at the Picayune Item in Mississippi. He is currently a Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan.

Sponsors

This event is hosted by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and co-sponsored by the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan's Alumni Education program and U-M Democracy & Debate.