Joe Biden’s Last Campaign

In this week’s newsletter:Ronan Farrow on RuPaul; the fight over I.V.F.; and the legacy of Keith Haring.Jump to a complete list of what’s in the issue.

The staff writerEvan Osnosexplains what he hoped to learn during his exclusive Oval Office interview with President Biden.

A decade ago,having recently moved from Beijing to Washington, I paid a call on Vice-President Joe Biden. He was deeply involved in foreign affairs—dealings with Iraq, Ukraine, Turkey, Brazil—and, though he was not a fresh subject for much of the political press, I found him startlingly frank. Hesaid what he thought, not only about distant potentates but about the humid workings of élite politics and about his own dramatic life. (His communications people tended to wear the tight smiles that you see on lion tamers.) I took to interviewing him, first in his office in the West Wing, then out on the road. During the pandemic, in 2020, I spoke with him at his home in Delaware, when his own tortuous path to the Presidency, full of trials and suffering, seemed to pose almost the perfect opposite to Donald Trump’s life of immunity to self-examination.

When Iembarked on this latest Biden story, last fall, I was interested in two big questions: Could normal political training still work at an utterly abnormal political time? (Biden was gearing up for a rematch against a man on a vengeful crusade to escape prosecution; and House Republicans were trying to mount an impeachment case against the President, while also ousting their own Speaker.) The other question was the oldest and most bedevilling for a candidate: What makes a person think they must occupy the White House? So much about our political life is inhospitable, and Biden, already America’s oldest President, could have declared his mission complete at the end of one term. After so many years of studying Biden, I felt compelled to understand what stew of ingredients—strategic, psychological, historical—mixed in his mind to make him say, in effect, I am making the best choice for the country, for myself, and for my family by running again. The answer would be of vast consequence, and I wanted to hear it in real time, because after the fact, no matter the outcome of the election, the story will be warped by the exigencies of pride and perspective. Sitting down with him in the Oval Office, I was struck by how—more than with any other politician I’ve encountered—his political calculus is inextricable from his biography. To understand why Joe Biden is running in 2024, you have to go back to the man, and even the boy, he was decades ago.

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Cover Story:“It’s been a great year for movies,” Barry Blitt, the artist behind “Slappenheimer,” says. “This Oscars ceremony ought to be worth watching—even if nobody gets smacked onstage this time around.”Shop all our covers »

The Reign of RuPaul:The drag star brought the form mainstream, and made an empire out of queer expression. Now, Ronan Farrow reports,he fears “the absolute worst.”

Mexico’s Missing Forty-Three:One night in 2014, a group of young men from a rural teachers’ college vanished. Alma Guillermoprieto onthe families who are fighting for justice.

Lucy Prebble’s Dramas of High Anxiety:In plays such as “The Effect” and TV shows such as “I Hate Suzie” and “Succession,” the writer has become an expert at expressing a character’s paralyzing worry. Rebecca Mead exploreshow Prebble gets inside their heads.

Plus:Amy Davidson Sorkin onTrump at the Supreme Court; Jackson Arn onKeith Haring; and more.

1. I.V.F. has wide support,even among Republican voters, but it is at odds with key elements in the pro-life movement. Jessica Winter onthe fertility battles ahead.

2. Crystal Clanton became notoriousfor sending outlandishly racist texts. Now she’s been hired to work for Justice Clarence Thomas—and a dubious new story has surfaced to clear her name. Jane Mayerinvestigates.

3. What does it meanfor an American to self-immolate? Masha Gessen writes aboutAaron Bushnell’s desperate act of protest in support of Gaza.

4. To create the Fremen languagein the latest “Dune” movies, David J. Peterson drew on his experience from “Game of Thrones” and other popular entertainment. Manvir Singh examineshow Peterson builds his linguistic worlds.

5. Campaigning has becomean essential role for actors looking to win an Oscar. But how much is too much? Michael Schulman onthe Bradley Cooper problem.

“My face and hands were covered in soot. My hair was matted and my leather boots were encrusted with dirt. Fire was changing me, and not just physically. I’d always harbored a sense of unease about my own species; I’d wondered if we were somehow fundamentally ruinous to the earth. Now, with my drip torch in hand, I felt like I was a link in a chain of mutual benefit connecting soil, grass, insects, animals, humans, and sky.”

—M. R. O’Connor on catching the fire bug

P.S. “The town we live inis much like any other. Not too far from the city. Lots of trees and parks and youth sports programs. It’s a wonderful place for raising children, but also for conducting illicit sexual affairs.” In this week’s Shouts & Murmurs, John Kenney imaginesscenes from an open-ish marriage.