It’s Friday, August 7. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: River Page on RFK Jr.’s tragic salmon cakes. Jed Rubenfeld explains why pleading the Fifth won’t keep Fauci safe. Democratic lawmaker Josh Gottheimer on what is happening to his party. And much more.
But first: the problem with publishing.
If you think it’s overstating it to say that American publishing is governed by an insidious double standard, consider recent events at one of America’s biggest publishers. Last week, Simon & Schuster doubled down on its relationship with Palestinian American novelist Susan Abulhawa, despite her praise for a terrorist, her revival of Nazi-era antisemitic tropes, and her dark characterization of Jews as “ghouls,” “cockroaches,” and “demons.” At the same time, Jewish writers such as Alyssa Rosenheck and Meg Keene say they’ve had their events canceled, faced pressure to downplay Jewish identity, and had to deal with a publishing industry increasingly unwilling to stand behind them.
Today, the author Gerald Posner, whose books have been published by Simon & Schuster, makes an argument for consistency. If publishers insist they’re defending free expression rather than endorsing every author they publish, that principle has to apply evenly. It hasn’t at S&S, which is why Gerald says he may be taking his next book elsewhere.
And for more on the dangerous worldview that has come to dominate publishing, read Matti Friedman’s essay “Introduction to Gazaology.”
—The Editors
This week, Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary and has roughly even odds of joining Congress’s upper chamber next year. New Jersey congressman Josh Gottheimer, a fellow Democrat, argues that El-Sayed didn’t triumph by focusing on affordability. Instead, he rose to prominence by painting Israel as a great villain. As Gottheimer sees it, that’s an ominous sign, and suggests a fixation that runs far deeper than one candidate: He believes hatred for Israel has become endemic inside his own party. If his colleagues don’t act now, this new movement could threaten the entire country.
Last week, Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. launched “The Real Food Show,” a Make America Healthy Again-themed cooking program. According to the government’s website, it has a bold mission: “To make healthy eating practical, approachable, and affordable.” We sent River Page to try the inaugural recipe for himself—and the reality, he reports, turned out to be far pricier (and less tasty) than it seemed. “HHS’s math—and I suppose, Kennedy’s—fundamentally misunderstands what it is like to go grocery shopping as a broke person in this country,” he writes. Plus, “The kitchen in the video also looked suspiciously spotless in the aftermath. Mine looked like the Lower Ninth Ward after Katrina.”
On Thursday morning, a Senate committee led by GOP senator Rand Paul voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions at last week’s hearing. The move was politically fraught, but many legal experts claim that invoking the Fifth Amendment was a perfectly acceptable way for Fauci to avoid getting into trouble with the law. Our legal columnist, Jed Rubenfeld, says those experts couldn’t be more wrong; read his piece to find out why.
President Donald Trump spent much of the week seeking yet another end to the war he launched in Iran, yet a few voices in his party are still committed to seeing it through. In the latest episode of “School of War,” Senator Ted Cruz offers a plan to redouble the Iran war effort and topple the regime. Will his arguments find the president’s ear?
EDITORS’ PICKS
This week, the nation had its eyes on one story: the result in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary. The two candidates, progressive Abdul El-Sayed and moderate Haley Stevens, hail from starkly different wings of the party—and El-Sayed’s victory sent a clear message about where the party is headed. Olivia Reingold was on the ground in Michigan on election night; read her dispatch on how El-Sayed took the state by storm, and what his victory may mean for 2028.
El-Sayed’s electrifying rhetoric and off-the-cuff charm have drawn comparisons to Barack Obama. But Eli Lake sees a crucial difference. While Obama took pains to distance himself from controversial anti-American figures such as Jeremiah Wright, El-Sayed campaigned side by side with radical leftist Hasan Piker. Read Eli’s piece on shady alliances, and how big tent politics went awry.
It’s not just the left that has a radicalism problem. Tucker Carlson often proclaims that he is not antisemitic—but his behavior on his podcast this week told the opposite story. Read Rod Dreher on the danger of Carlson’s subtle bigotry.
Karla Solheim challenged the orthodoxy of pediatric gender medicine and paid a steep price, including professional isolation, public attacks, and the threat of losing her career. But now, as governments and medical authorities around the world reassess the evidence behind youth gender transition, the questions she raised no longer look so fringe. Read her account of the latest turns in a debate over medicine, ideology, and free inquiry.
If you’re looking to relax this weekend, the odds suggest it may not be with a drink. According to new data, more Americans use marijuana daily than smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol, and states are taking ever more steps to deregulate it. Is weed taking over, or is the marijuana surge a big bubble that’s about to pop? Read Charles Fain Lehman’s piece to find out.
Larissa Phillips never thought she’d own a gun. As a former resident of deep-blue Brooklyn, the idea of owning a firearm had always struck her as dangerous and retrograde. But her perspectives have changed in many ways since she moved to a red patch of upstate New York, and that includes a new awareness of the need for self-defense. Read her essay mulling over a decision she never expected to face.
Larissa Philips’s article on whether to own a gun is an excellent summary of thinking about one’s decision to own guns and what one should do before going ahead. As someone whose Dad owned over 20 rifles locked in a gun safe and no handguns, he didn’t really teach us how to handle guns which I think anyone thinking about it has to learn and keep practicing to make sure they are comfortable. When my wife and I decided to think about a handgun, we both went to a range (just like Larissa and her husband) and a trained professional explained how one works and showed us different techniques. Using a handgun is a lot different than a rifle which I was more used to. Anyway, I thought this article was very good with many good suggestions. Thank you.