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The first thing I thought of while watching Senator JD Vance of Ohio refuse to say whether Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election in a recent interview with this newspaper was “The Manchurian Candidate,” John Frankenheimer’s 1962 psychological thriller.
The linchpin of “The Manchurian Candidate,” of course, is the scene in which we learn that the sterling and charismatic Raymond Shaw, a war hero, was actually captured and brainwashed during his time during the Korean War. He was programmed as a sleeper agent to kill on command, and his handlers also brainwashed his fellow captured soldiers so that the truth of his identity would be kept under wraps. When asked about Shaw, those soldiers repeat the same robotic statement, that Shaw is “the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.”
My colleague Lulu Garcia-Navarro gave Vance five opportunities to answer a single simple question: Did Trump lose the 2020 election? And each time, Vance gave the same rote response. “Did big technology companies censor a story that independent studies have suggested would have cost Trump millions of votes?” he asked.
Each refusal to answer was more chilling than the last. It was as if Vance had just been repeating a set of programmed answers, unable to deviate from his commands. Of course, Vance isn’t the victim in a Hollywood thriller. He is a willing participant in an effort to degrade and destroy the truth in order to win power.
There is no question that Vance knows that Trump lost the presidency in a free and fair election. His decision to say otherwise is a show of loyalty to his patron. And I would suggest that it is also a statement of intent — that Vance and Trump don’t really believe that they ought to abide by the will of the voters. If they win in November, no matter by how narrow a margin, they’ll say it was a mandate. If they lose, they’ll say it was fraud.
What I Wrote
My Tuesday column was on Hurricane Helene and Trump’s assault on the truth.
My Friday column was on the conservative idea that young people have been indoctrinated into opposing the Republican Party.
And I joined my colleagues Lydia Polgreen and Michelle Goldberg on this week’s episode of “Matter of Opinion.”
Now Reading
Linda Colley on the British constitution for The New York Review of Books.
Tareq Baconi on Palestinian grief and struggle for The New York Review of Books.
Ruwaida Kamal Amer on living through Israel’s war in Gaza for +972 Magazine
Rania Abouzeid on Israel’s war in Lebanon for The New Yorker.
Mohammed R. Mhawish on one of the families devastated by the Gaza war for The Nation.
Photo of the Week
I was in St. Louis for a few days this week and had a moment to explore, which I used to take a tour of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. Here is a snapshot I took with my iPhone. (I took photos with a film camera as well, but I won’t have those ready to share for a while.)
Now Eating: Chicken Stir-Fry With Mixed Peppers
We’ve been eating a lot of stir-fries lately — easy to throw together on a weeknight — and this landed well with the kids (who are my harshest critics). The velveting process might seem extraneous, but it really does make it for a final product that is tender and moist. Recipe comes from the Cooking section of The New York Times.
Ingredients
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut across the grain in ¼-inch-thick slices
1 tablespoon egg white, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 ½ teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon rice wine or dry sherry
½ teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 teaspoon low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons peanut oil, rice bran oil or canola oil
1 tablespoon minced ginger
2 fat garlic cloves, minced
1 pound green peppers, with at least one of them a hot chile, such as an Anaheim
¼ cup cashew pieces
Directions
In a large bowl stir together the egg white, cornstarch, 1½ teaspoons of the rice wine or sherry, salt to taste and 1½ teaspoons water. When you can no longer see any cornstarch, add the chicken and stir together until coated. Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Combine the remaining rice wine or sherry, the hoisin sauce, soy sauce and sugar in a small bowl and set it near your wok.
Fill a medium-size saucepan with water and bring to a boil. Add 1 tablespoon of the oil and turn the heat down so that the water is at a bare simmer. Carefully add the chicken to the water, stirring so that the pieces don’t clump. Cook until the chicken turns opaque on the surface but is not cooked through, about 1 minute. Drain in a colander set over a bowl.
Heat a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok or 12-inch steel skillet over high heat until a drop of water evaporates within a second or two when added to the pan. Add the remaining oil by pouring it down the sides of the pan and swirling the pan, then add the garlic, ginger and chile and stir-fry for no more than 10 seconds. Add the remaining peppers and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the chicken, cashews and hoisin sauce mixture and salt to taste. Stir-fry for 1 to 2 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through, and serve with grains or noodles.
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