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

Understanding the greatest catastrophic failure of American Government.

In 2022, Ira Shapiro completed what Brooking scholar William A. Galston called "an epic trilogy" chronicling the disastrous decline of the once-great Senate. The Founding Fathers gave the Senate many functions, but it had one overriding responsibility: to provide a check against a dangerous president who threatened our democracy. Shapiro's gripping portrait of Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans' turning a blind eye to Donald Trump's abuses of power remains the definitive chronicle of the most catastrophic failure of government in American history. The updated edition carries the story forward into the Biden presidency and the efforts to restore bipartisanship in bitterly contentious times.

Ira Shapiro's forty-five year Washington career has focused on American politics and international trade. Mr. Shapiro served twelve years in senior staff positions in the U.S. Senate, working for a series of distinguished senators: Jacob Javits, Gaylord Nelson, Abraham Ribicoff, Thomas Eagleton, Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller. He served in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative during the Clinton administration, first as General Counsel and then chief negotiator with Japan and Canada, with the rank of ambassador. From 2012 to 2017, he was the chairman of the National Association of Japan-America Societies (NAJAS) and received a Commendation from the Foreign Minister of Japan. He is the author of two previous critically-acclaimed books about the Senate: The Last Great Senate: Courage and Statesmanship in Times of Crisis (2012) and Broken: Can the Senate Save Itself and the Country? (2018). His articles have appeared in The New York Times, U.S. Today, cnn.com, The Hill, Bloomberg, The Daily Caller, Newsmax, and several local newspapers around the country. Ira currently resides in Bethesda, Maryland.