THE SQUAD

Progressives come to Washington.

Political reporter Grim, D.C. bureau chief for the Intercept, examines the rise, challenges, and influence of six aggressive left-wing politicians: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar, branded by the media as The Squad, and the two representatives who joined them in 2021, Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush. Covering the period from 2015 to the 2022 midterms, Grim sees this book as a sequel to his last, We’ve Got People: From Jesse Jackson to AOC, the End of Big Money and the Rise of a Movement. He reprises AOC’s transformation from a newly registered Democrat who was swept up by Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign to an energized candidate for Congress, tapped by the organization Brand New Congress to unseat Joe Crowley, “widely considered the most likely replacement for Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she stepped aside.” Once sworn in, AOC was quickly disillusioned. At a retreat organized in part by the House of Representatives, she texted the author, “this Harvard ‘orientation’ is a corporate indoctrination camp and it’s infuriating.” In D.C., she and the other Squad members faced challenges from within their party, especially from the inordinately belligerent New Jersey Congressman Josh Gottheimer; hostile Republicans; and internal disputes within the left, as they attempted to shape policy regarding immigration, climate change, health care, social spending, and the Middle East. The Green New Deal, for example, “was ridiculed by the right and dismissed by Democratic leaders as unserious.” Yet outside of Washington, Grim notes, “it became a global sensation.” As AOC became a prominent media personality, she and the rest of the Squad were increasingly targeted. AOC, whom Grim portrays as “a consensus builder and a people-pleaser,” was “thrust into the role of rebel.” Drawing on his own on-the-ground reporting, Grim creates a detailed account of seven tumultuous years.

An insider’s often dismaying picture of national politics.