All this has taken place with the backdrop of Covid-19, which has only become more politicized, even with the availability of a vaccine.
As the year draws to a close, Politico Magazine’s editors have highlighted 21 stories that can help make sense of all that we’ve just lived through — from a riveting account of what it was like inside the Capitol on Jan. 6 to a forward-looking investigation into how Chicago’s declining Black population is changing the city’s power politics.
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Andrew Harnik/AP Photo
‘Is This Really Happening?’: The Siege of Congress, Seen From the Inside
A real-time account of the hours when rioters breached the Capitol and brought the government to a halt.
BY TheTeCHyWorLD STAFF
Photos by Cheriss May for Politico Magazine
‘Like a Ghost’ in the White House: The Last Days of the Trump Presidency
In the aftermath of the Capitol riot, Trump’s White House became an insular refuge for a self-absorbed leader detached from the people who had rejected him.
BY ANITA KUMAR, GABBY ORR and MERIDITH MCGRAW
In Photos: 100 Days of Biden’s Washington
Our photographer captured the city during the pivotal transition from Trump to Biden.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEPHEN VOSS
Illustration by Jason Seiler
The Antipope of Mar-a-Lago
What a medieval religious schism can teach us about Donald Trump’s unprecedented and radically antagonistic approach to the ex-presidency.
BY MICHAEL KRUSE
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
‘Nobody Listened To Me’: The Quest to Be MTG
All Marjorie Taylor Greene ever wanted was someone to pay attention to her.
BY MICHAEL KRUSE
Mark Peterson/Redux
‘It’s a Kill Shot’: How Tish James Holds Cuomo’s Future In Her Hands
New York’s attorney general was long regarded as the governor’s close ally. Then came a bruising report on Covid-19 deaths, and the rest could be history.
BY ANNA GRONEWOLD
TheTeCHyWorLD illustration/AP and Getty Images
How ‘Owning the Libs’ Became the GOP’s Core Belief
The weird journey of a tongue-in-cheek catchphrase from conservative-mocking putdown to the defining tenet of the Republican Party’s way of life.
BY DEREK ROBERTSON
Photo by Mehmet Demirci for Politico Magazine
The ‘Green Energy’ That Might Be Ruining the Planet
The biomass industry is warming up the South’s economy, but many experts worry it’s doing the same to the climate. Will the Biden Administration embrace it, or cut it loose?
BY MICHAEL GRUNWALD
Photos by Erin Kirkland for Politico Magazine
‘As Long as the Party Embraces Trump, It’s Going to Have Trouble’
The Republican collapse in Michigan’s Oakland County, once a stronghold, was a long time coming. Is losing these suburbs a warning light for Trumpism?
BY ZACK STANTON
Photo by Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for Politico Magazine
Could a School-Board Fight Over Critical Race Theory Help Turn Virginia Red?
Debate around critical race theory pushed wealthy Loudoun County to the frontlines of the GOP’s culture wars. Republicans are hoping to turn that discord into political capital.
BY MAYA KING
Photo by Josue Decavele for Politico Magazine
It’s Not a Border Crisis. It’s a Climate Crisis.
There was a time when rural Guatemalans never left home. But back-to-back hurricanes, failed crops and extreme poverty are driving them to make the dangerous trek north to the U.S. border.
BY SABRINA RODRIGUEZ
Photo by Whitney Curtis for Politico Magazine
‘What’s Covid?’ Why People at America’s Hardest-Partying Lake Are Not About to Get Vaccinated
At the Lake of the Ozarks, vaccines are shunned, masks are mocked and the long-term consequences take a back seat to the time at hand.
BY NATASHA KORECKI
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
‘He’s a Great Guy’: Trump’s Favored Aide Has Troubled Past
Sources say Max Miller has a history of aggressive behavior that includes slapping his ex-girlfriend, former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.
BY MICHAEL KRUSE
Illustration by Valerie Chiang/AP and Getty Images
The Last Commander
General Austin “Scott” Miller found a new way to push the Taliban back in Afghanistan. Then, instead of pressing the fight, he became the man in charge of pulling America out.
BY JAMES KITFIELD
AP Photos and Getty Images
‘This Is Actually Happening’
Inside the Biden team’s five-day scramble as Afghanistan collapsed.
BY BRYAN BENDER, ALEXANDER WARD, LARA SELIGMAN, ANDREW DESIDERIO and ALEX THOMPSON
Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
‘A Private Matter’: Joe Biden’s Very Public Clash With His Own Church
Becoming president has brought Biden into direct conflict with conservative Catholics on the most polarizing issue of the moment: Abortion.
BY RUBY CRAMER
Photos by Gabriella Demczuk for Politico Magazine
They Created Our Post-9/11 World. Here’s What They Think They Got Wrong.
Seventeen prominent players reflect on the decades of war they helped wage and the domestic defenses they helped erect.
BY BRYAN BENDER and DANIEL LIPPMAN
Photo by Kendall Warner for Politico Magazine
When the Unstoppable Activists Met Their Match
An idealistic climate campaign promised to transform the whole conversation in Washington. They ended up chanting “F— Joe Manchin” in a parking lot.
BY RUAIRÍ ARRIETA-KENNA
Illustration by Shira Inbar
‘You Are Mommy Tracked to the Billionth Degree’
Women are more likely to want to work remotely. But what if it ends up working against them?
BY EMILY PECK
Photo by Mark Peterson/Redux for Politico Magazine
The Bonnie and Clyde of MAGA World
For a decade, Dustin Stockton and Jennifer Lawrence had surfed the wave of populist-right politics like few other people in America. Then came Jan. 6.
BY DAVID FREEDLANDER
Illustration by Beth Suzanna
Black People Are Leaving Chicago en Masse. It’s Changing the City’s Power Politics.
Chicago’s power struggle shows what’s at stake when a city loses its Black population. And they’re not alone: Nine of 10 of the cities with the largest Black populations are on the verge of the same exodus.
BY SHIA KAPOS, JUAN PEREZ JR., RENUKA RAYASAM and MING LI