Mad House - by Annie Karni & Luke Broadwater (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

An exclusive fly-on-the-wall account of the epic dysfunction of the American Congress, from the rotating cast of failed Speakers to the MAGA efforts to impeach President Joe Biden to the insanity of the 2024 presidential race--by the star congressional reporters at The New York Times

"Mad House contains cyanide and candy on every page, which proves to be a killer combo. I loved it."--Mark Leibovich, author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers This Town and Thank You for Your Servitude

The United States Congress has always been messy and far-from-august, but as Annie Karni and Luke Broadwater show here, in scorching, shocking detail, it has reached some kind of chaotic bottom. The anarchy that reigned over Congress's lower chamber in the wake of the January 6th attack on the Capitol Building--the election of serial liar and con-man George Santos, revenge porn being shown on the floor of the house, and the theatrical high jinks of Lauren Boebert--all were a sign of decay and dysfunction of the highest order. Even the members of the 118th Congress would admit it was a circus--but up close, the spectacle was more alarming than funny.

Taking the reader into closed door meetings as House Republicans, in thrall to a cult of personality, bumble ever deeper into extremism, and sniping House Democrats lose faith in their President, the authors reveal a level of disorder that we have never seen before. Mad House is a searing, rollicking, and deeply reported portrait of a body at war with itself, riven by pettiness, egomania, and score-settling, and defined by the truly unbelievable antics of people like Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Jim Jordan, who, handed the reins of power, attempted to actually govern a country. They did the bare minimum but voters in the 2024 elections rewarded them nonetheless, giving MAGA Republicans control of the White House, the Senate, and the House--and delivering to President Donald Trump a malleable Congress of loyalists there to serve. If you want a peek at what the next four years might look like, there's no better place to start than the dysfunction that led us here.

Review Quotes

"Every so often, a book comes along that makes you feel extremely hopeful about America. This is not one of those books. Mad House contains cyanide and candy on every page, which proves to be a killer combo. I loved it."--Mark Leibovich, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Thank You for Your Servitude

"A field guide for those struggling to understand how the U.S. Congress got quite this crazy, Mad House by Luke Broadwater and Annie Karni also happens to be a delight to read--a vivid, deeply reported, and frequently entertaining account of the grifters, con men, and merely ambitious pols who populate the Capitol in this age of Trump. It's a must-read for the Republican-ruled Washington that looms in 2025."--Susan Glasser, New Yorker staff writer and co-author of the New York Times bestsellers The Divider and The Man Who Ran Washington

"Annie Karni and Luke Broadwater are two of the best congressional reporters in the business, and this dishy, fly-on-the-wall chronicle of the 118th Congress is neon proof. Mad House is an organized account of utter bedlam, a flamboyant tale of the House's most outlandish members--their vanities, idiosyncrasies, rivalries, and devil's pacts--that both beguiles and horrifies. It's one of the most involving books about politics I've read in a long while."--Jennifer Senior, New York Times bestselling author of All Joy and No Fun and winner of the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing

About the Author

Annie Karni is a congressional correspondent for The New York Times. She joined the paper in 2018 and was previously a White House correspondent, covering both the Trump and Biden administrations. Before that, she worked for Politico, where she covered the 2016 presidential election, and the New York Post and the New York Daily News, covering local politics. She has also written for New York Magazine and Vogue. She frequently appears on television and radio programs.

Luke Broadwater is a congressional correspondent for The New York Times, where he has profiled congressional leaders, investigated federal spending, and played a key role in the paper's coverage of the Jan. 6th attack on the Capitol, for which the Times was named finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. Prior to joining the Times, Luke worked for nearly a decide at the Baltimore Sun, where he was the lead reporter on a series of investigative articles that won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting and a George Polk Award for political reporting. He frequently appears on television and radio programs for interviews.