Summary of The Big Break by Ben Terris: The Gamblers, Party Animals, and True Believers Trying to Win in Washington While America Loses Its Mind

By Justin Reese

DISCLAIMER

This book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.

Summary of The Big Break by Ben Terris: The Gamblers, Party Animals, and True Believers Trying to Win in Washington While America Loses Its Mind

 

IN THIS SUMMARIZED BOOK, YOU WILL GET:

• Chapter astute outline of the main contents.
• Fast & simple understanding of the content analysis.
• Exceptionally summarized content that you may skip in the original book

 

The Big Break is a fascinating investigation into the inner workings of a post-Trump American government. It looks at the people who see this moment as an opportunity to bet big and introduces readers to the behind-the-scenes players who believe they know what Washington and America must do to survive or thrive. Trump's arrival in Washington marked a big break in how the city operated. Pro-Trump elements plotted to overturn his election, leading to the Capitol becoming a combat zone and a military fortress. The Big Break follows a cast of D.C.

characters in search of answers to these questions. They all share one thing in common: they had seen their country go through a Big Break.

• Language: English
• Publisher: jUSTIN REESE
• Release date: Jun 7, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223008224

Book preview

NOTE TO READERS

This is an unofficial summary & analysis of Ben Terris’sThe Big Break: The Gamblers, Party Animals, and True Believers Trying to Win in Washington While America Loses Its Mind designed to enrich your reading experience.

DISCLAIMER

The contents of the summary are not intended to replace the original book. It is meant as a supplement to enhance the reader's understanding. The contents within can neither be stored electronically, transferred, nor kept in a database. Neither part nor full can the document be copied, scanned, faxed, or retained without the approval from the publisher or creator.

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Copyright 2023. All rights reserved.

Is Any of This Normal?

Sean McElwee is a twenty-eight-year-old head of a Democratic polling group and think tank who is in the business of making Joe Biden's agenda look more popular than it really is. He is new to Washington and has managed to generate a gravity well, attracting other Democratic operators into his orbit. He hosts monthly happy hours that are well attended by professional progressives and establishment climbers, and invites a rotating cast of his happy-hour crew over for poker. He is over six feet tall with a body type that fluctuates between lineman and linebacker. The table featured a spokesman for Facebook, a former Senate staffer, a former top aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a senior reporter, and Gabe Bankman-Fried, the brother and political consigliere of the crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried.

Sean was good at getting close to people with money and doing work for Gabe's organization, Guarding Against Pandemics (GAP). He also had his eye on the upcoming Democratic primary in Ohio, where Shontel Brown is up against Nina Turner. Sean had placed bets online and stood to win nearly $14,000 if Shontel Brown won. The most important details in this text are the ethical implications of betting on politics while working in politics and betting on clients. After four years of Donald Trump, Official Washington rearranged their habits around Trump's personality, such as lobbying him, wearing ugly red hats, and changing their opinions about free trade.

When Joe Biden ran for president, he offered a selling point that was rare for political campaigns: a return to business as usual. However, two months later, Trump supporters led a violent siege of the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the peaceful transition of power, and Biden did assume his rightful office, but the odds of a return to normalcy were difficult to determine. John Yarmuth recounted a recent argument on the House floor between Mark Pocan and John Garamendi that nearly turned into a physical fight. Republicans took a step away from Trump after the insurrection, then ran back to him once they decided denouncing those lies was bad politics.

MAGA diehards like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene doubled down on the Trump election lies that had inspired the attack on the Capitol. Some lawmakers were trying to make federal legislation bipartisan again, such as Senator Chris Coons, Ted Cruz, and Lisa Murkowski. There was a lot of hand-wringing about Biden's diminishing poll numbers and his advancing age. The pandemic had caused people to consider an alternative candidate for 2024, especially with Biden lying in wait to retake the White House. Jen Psaki, then Biden's press secretary, had no reason to believe Biden would not run again.

When Trump descended from a golden escalator and became a candidate for president, he was just a sideshow. With Trump in the White House, it was boom time for weirdness in Washington, with the president suggesting nuking a hurricane, Kim Jong-un, the coronavirus, and injecting disinfectant and light into the body. This book is about the Washington that predated Trump and the Washington he left in his wake. It explores these questions by spending time with people who were trying to make post-Trump Washington work for them, such as Sean McElwee, who made big bets, big allies, and big enemies. He showed off a new pair of pink hightops he had bought with the money he had made betting against Nina Turner’s primary campaign.

The book also considers the possibility that either Sean would become the biggest thing in Democratic politics or flame out. Washington is a weird place like that, even in normal times. Over two years, the author interviewed a variety of people in Washington, DC, who were trying to figure out if Washington was the right place to be if they wanted to repair the country. They were all tied up in their livelihoods, and were trying to put something together or keep something together. They were placing bets on the future and hoping things would break their way.

Part 1

The Players

A Tale of Two Parties

Leah Hunt-Hendrix, the granddaughter of H. L. Hunt, the late oil tycoon once believed to be the richest man in the world, threw a Christmas party in her $2.2 million brick Victorian house. She was the granddaughter of H. L. Hunt, the late oil tycoon once believed to be the richest man in the world, and had named her tiny white dog after Malcolm X. The author was on a mission to figure out what Donald Trump had left behind, and attended two Christmas parties to find out what people were gossiping or worried about. Leah and Corbin Trent, Ryan Grim, Faiz Shakir, and Matt Schlapp were all in different worlds.

Corbin Trent was a former communications director for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, while Ryan Grim was the D.C. bureau chief of The Intercept. Faiz Shakir was a top strategist for Senator Bernie Sanders, while Sarah Miller was an au pair. Faiz Shakir was an insider and an outsider, a liaison between the Biden administration and the groups trying to pull the president to the left. Leah is a wealthy White lady fighting inequality and helping Democrats better appeal to an everdiversifying working class.

She has been an early financial backer of Black Lives Matter and is helping raise money for progressive congressional candidates. Her aunt Swanee, former ambassador to Austria under Bill Clinton, is the person she looks up to most for her understanding of soft power and how to build out a network for good. Leah is in a bit of a slump, but she had thrived during the Trump years and cofounded an organization, Way to Win, which had been a bright star of the #Resistance era. Leah was struggling to keep energy levels up for the 2022 midterms, but had met Mandela Barnes, the 35-year-old