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Hyperpartisanship is weakening our trust in our democracy. We can change that.

Two-Time Pulitzer Prize Winning Foreign Correspondent and Author | NBC News National Security Editor | Award-Winning Investigative Reporter

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Morning Joe: How Trump turned DOJ and FBI into his personal political weapons (9:53)

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Andrea Mitchell Reports: Trump talking about jailing his enemies is ‘a frightening thing’ (4:40)

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Where Tyranny Begins: David Rohde at Politics and Prose (1:00:56)

Lavin Exclusive Speaker

Public trust in the United States’ two most powerful federal law enforcement agencies—the FBI and the Justice Department—has rapidly declined in recent years, with Donald Trump assailing both institutions. Democrats, meanwhile, complain that the FBI and Justice Department failed to hold Trump accountable. But two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Rohde found over the course of a three-year investigation that Trump and other politicians are attacking the institutions for their own political gain. Already, hyperpartisanship is steadily paralyzing American democracy. If the conspiracy theories continue to spread, political violence could follow. A veteran journalist who was captured by the Taliban and escaped after seven months in captivity, David is “one of the best investigative reporters of his generation” (George Packer, The Unwinding). In his latest book, Where Tyranny Begins, he shows us what we need to keep American democracy functioning, starting with non-partisan public servants: election clerks to accurately count votes, judges and police to enforce the law equally, and non-partisan journalists to report basic facts.

“One of the best investigative reporters of his generation. What I admire most is his fair-mindedness about pressing and controversial issues that have caused many others to lose their heads.”—George Packer, Award-Winning Author of The Unwinding

NBC News National Security Editor David Rohde is an award-winning foreign correspondent and journalist. His latest book, Where Tyranny Begins, reconstructs and reveals how Donald Trump used threats, co-option, and conspiracy theories to bend DOJ and FBI officials to his will to a greater extent than publicly known—and how Attorney General Merrick Garland, other prosecutors, and judges failed to hold him accountable before the 2024 election. David investigates the strategies Trump systematically used to turn the country’s two most powerful law-enforcement agencies into his personal political weapons, and reveals how, during the Biden years, Justice Department non-partisan 1970s norms that Garland reinforced inadvertently helped Trump, and failed to deliver a January 6th-related trial and legal accountability before Election Day 2024.

Where Tyranny Begins exposes how ill-suited both the DOJ and FBI are to serve as checks on abuses of presidential power. The rise of hyper-partisanship and the Trump and Biden presidencies have uncovered core flaws in American constitutional democracy that future presidents could exploit. Rohde argues that a new round of bold reforms equivalent to the post-Watergate reforms in the 1970s could help stabilize American democracy and slowly restore public trust in our institutions.

David is also the author of In Deep: The FBI, the CIA, and the Truth about America’s Deep State, a fact-based, non-partisan investigation addressing conspiracy theories on the existence of a “Deep State.” Jane Mayer, bestselling author of Dark Money, says, “One of today’s most respected journalists, David Rohde takes on one of the country’s most toxic conspiracy theories,” presenting a “scrupulously reported and even-handed” account of how power and intelligence are exploited in Washington that “goes deep indeed inside America’s security state, telling a story that will surprise readers of all political persuasions.”

As a foreign correspondent, David covered the wars in Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. In Srebrenica, Bosnia, he won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for discovering the mass graves of 8,000 Muslim men and boys who had been executed, after being arrested at a mass grave by the Bosnian Serbs who carried out the killings, jailed for ten days, and threatened with execution himself. David’s book on Srebrenica, Endgame: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica, Europe’s Worst Massacre Since World War II, was hailed by The New York Times as “a remarkable account, based on courageous research and admirably unbiased analysis” and by The Guardian as “essential reading” and “journalism at its committed best.”

“David’s work shows the broad reach and impact of good journalism, and is a shining example of what journalists can accomplish, even when working under dangerous and trying circumstances.”—The International Press Institute

David’s coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan earned him another Pulitzer Prize in International Reporting, shared with the staff at The New York Times, for their “groundbreaking, masterful coverage” of the two countries. While researching a book on Afghanistan in 2008, he and two Afghan colleagues were kidnapped by a Taliban commander, held captive for seven months, and threatened with execution before escaping. His book on the experience, A Rope and a Prayer, co-written with his wife, Kristen Mulvihill, is “required reading” (The New York Times).

He began his career at ABC News, then became Eastern Europe Correspondent for The Christian Science Monitor. For nearly fifteen years, he reported for The New York Times—moving from New York Criminal Courts Reporter to Foreign Correspondent to South Asia Bureau Co-Chief to Investigative Reporter. After his tenure there, he served as a columnist, Investigative Reporter, and National Security Investigations Editor at Reuters. His third book, Beyond War: Reimagining America’s Role and Ambitions in a New Middle East, was praised by The New York Times for exposing “the deep contradictions” in Washington’s efforts to counter terrorism.

Before joining NBC News, David was an executive editor of The New Yorker website, where he co-edited the online stories by Ronan Farrow on Harvey Weinstein’s abuses that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 2018. He also co-edited a series of New Yorker stories on the fall of Roe v. Wade, written by Stephania Taladrid, who was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist for that work in 2023.

Speech Topics

Politics & Society
Where Tyranny BeginsOur Institutions Are Failing. How Do We Fix Them?

Our polarized political landscape is weakening our democracy. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

In this revealing, ultimately hopeful keynote, David Rohde draws on his book Where Tyranny Begins to show us how the institutions we trust to safeguard our democracy are failing—and what it will take to strengthen and improve them.

David reveals the strategies that Trump syst...

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Politics & Society
A Rope and a PrayerThe Story of a Kidnapping

This riveting talk is the compelling and insightful account of David Rohde’s abduction by the Taliban, and his wife’s struggle to free him. In November 2008, David, a correspondent for The New York Times, and two Afghan colleagues were kidnapped by the Taliban and held captive for seven months in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

In the process, David became the first American to wi...

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Politics & Society
Beyond the HeadlinesFairness and Facts in Our Political Moment

Covering American politics and national security should be relatively easy compared to covering wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Bosnia. But overseeing news coverage in recent years has been one of the most challenging and unsettling experiences of David Rohde’s decades-long career in journalism. Commonly accepted facts are becoming increasingly elusive as hyperpartisan realities emerge. The coun...

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