October surprise : how the FBI tried to save itself and crashed an election / Devlin Barrett.
Material type:
TextPublisher: New York : PublicAffairs, 2020Edition: First editionDescription: x, 324 pages ; 24 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781541761971
- 1541761979
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
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Dr. James Carlson Library | NonFiction | 324.973 B274 | Available | 33111009765823 | ||||
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Adult Book
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Main Library | NonFiction | 324.973 B274 | Available | 33111010426050 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
The 2016 Election, which altered American political history, was not decided by the Russians or in Ukraine or by Steve Bannon. The event that broke Hillary's blue wall in the Midwest and swung Florida and North Carolina was an October Surprise, and it was wholly a product of the leadership of the FBI. This is the inside story by the reporter closest to its center.
In September 2016, Hillary Clinton was the presumptive next president of the US. She had a blue wall of states leaning her way in the Midwest, and was ahead in North Carolina and Florida, with a better than even shot at taking normally Republican Arizona. The US was about to get its first woman president. Yet within two months everything was lost. An already tightening race saw one seismic correction: it came in October when the FBI launched an investigation into the Clinton staff's use of a private server for their emails. Clinton fell 3-4 percent in the polls instantly, and her campaign never had time to rebut the investigation or rebuild her momentum so close to election day. The FBI cost her the race.
October Surprise is a pulsating narrative of an agency seized with righteous certainty that waded into the most important political moment in the life of the nation, and has no idea how to back out with dignity. So it doggedly stands its ground, compounding its error. In a momentous display of self-preservation, James Comey, Andrew McCabe, and key Justice Department officials decide to protect their own reputations rather than save the democratic process. Once they make that determination, the race is lost for Clinton, who is helpless in front of their accusation even though she has not intended to commit, let alone actually committed, any crime.
A dark true-life thriller with historic consequences set at the most crucial moment in the electoral calendar, October Surprise is a warning, a morality tale and a political and personal tragedy.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-308) and index.
"In October 2016, every poll gave Hillary Clinton a commanding lead in the upcoming presidential election. Then, a single, unprecedented intervention changed the course of American political history, dooming Clinton's chances and ushering in the era of Donald Trump. This is the up-close, inside story of how that happened, who was responsible, and why America may never recover from it. The decisive act came from James Comey, director of the FBI, when he publically reopened an investigation into Hillary Clinton's handling of emails only eleven days before the election. The FBI had always guarded its reputation for political neutrality but, in October, Comey steered the Bureau into the center of a political maelstrom. The FBI's actions in 2016 would have far-reaching consequences, leading directly to the Mueller investigation and the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, but more importantly they set the state for a ceaseless battle for political control of the Justice Department. October Surprise reveals how long-building tensions sent two of the most important parts of the government, the FBI and the Justice Department, into a self-destructive spiral that continues to this day" -- from publisher.