David Frum

My guest this week will be Stephen Richer, formerly recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, the chief election official in the city of Phoenix in the swing state of Arizona.

And we'll be discussing election integrity and the threats to election integrity, the conspiracy theories and lies that are told about elections past, and that present a threat to the integrity of free and fair elections in 2026.

My book this week is The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which I choose because this month, February 2026, marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of that book, of that famous book, in February 1776.

There were six volumes altogether, the last published in 1788, but February 1776 begins, announces the arrival of this tremendous achievement of historical research and English literary triumph.

Before turning to either the dialogue,

or the book, I want to begin with some thoughts about a very upsetting thing that happened over the past few days, and that is the posting on the social media account of the President of the United States of a scurrilous, racist, insulting, and stupid video about the past President of the United States, President Barack Obama, and his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama.

I'm sure many of you have seen the video or images of it.

You know what I'm talking about.

You've heard the many stories that the Trump White House has told, many contradictory stories about how this came to be.

I'm not interested in decoding which of those stories is closest to the truth or furthest from a lie.

And I'm not interested in adding my voice, one more condemnation to this offensive and stupid act.

The whole country has reverberated with condemnation, which is right and just.

And I'll say, I agree.

What more can be said?

But there is a deeper thing going on here that does deserve some comment.

You know, race, of course, is the fundamental thing.

chasm, a fundamental wound in American society.

And moving toward a more just racial constitution of the United States has been the work, oh, well, it's been a work that is never, you cannot date when it begins and you cannot date when it ends.

It goes on and continues to this day.

But the society is changing and a new racial constitution has been coming into being.