American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn's Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump
Kai Bird presents *American Scoundrel*, his biography of Roy Cohn, the ruthless political operator whose influence stretched from the McCarthy era through New York’s power circles and into Donald Trump’s rise. Bird traces Cohn’s career as a young prosecutor who helped send Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to the electric chair, his role as a prominent anti-communist, his work as a Mafia-connected attorney, and his relationships with figures including Richard Nixon, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, and Trump, whom Cohn mentored closely.
The discussion will also examine Cohn’s repeated legal troubles, his talent for manipulating politicians and gossip columnists, and the contradictions between his public bravado and private insecurities. After his death from AIDS in 1986, Cohn became a major character in Tony Kushner’s *Angels in America*. Bird will discuss the legacy of this “streetfighter” and political schemer with Congressman Jamie Raskin.
When: Thursday, September 10, 2026, at 7:00 p.m.
Venue: Politics and Prose, 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008.
Tickets: Free.
Seating: Seating is first come, first served.
Featured speakers: Kai Bird, author and biographer, in conversation with Congressman Jamie Raskin.
Kai Bird: Bird is the Pulitzer Prize–winning coauthor, with Martin J. Sherwin, of *American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer*, which inspired the film *Oppenheimer*. He directs the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the CUNY Graduate Center, has received the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Duff Cooper Prize for History, and has written extensively about subjects including Vietnam, Hiroshima, nuclear weapons, the Cold War, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the CIA. He is a member of the Society of American Historians.
Congressman Jamie Raskin: Raskin represents Maryland’s 8th Congressional District and serves as Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee in the 119th Congress. Before entering Congress, he was a Maryland state senator, Senate Majority Whip, and constitutional-law professor at American University’s Washington College of Law. He is the author of several books, including *Overruling Democracy*, *We the Students*, and the New York Times bestselling *Unthinkable*.
Related book: *American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn’s Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump* by Kai Bird, with Susan Goldmark, is available for preorder in hardcover for $32.00. It is scheduled for publication on September 1, 2026.
Accessibility: To request accommodations or ask about accessibility, email events@politics-prose.com, ideally at least one week before the event. The venue will make an effort to accommodate requests made closer to the event.