The Republican Party is still in thrall to Donald Trump, a man who turned generations of

the party's stances on its head in one presidential term.

For Stuart Stevens, a rock-ribbed Republican who has helped to elect Republicans at all

levels of government, including President of the United States, this led to some soul

searching.

The result is his book, It Was All Alive, How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump.

This conversation with Stevens is from last September, but everything we talked about,

especially the ugly role of race in the Republican Party, is still relevant today.

You can hear it all right now.

Stuart Stevens, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

Great to be here, Jonathan.

I'm a longtime fan, first time caller.

Well, thank you.

You sent me a DM on Twitter asking for me to read your latest book and where could you send it.

And I thought if Stuart Stevens is sending me a message about a book he's written,

I probably need to read it.

The name of the book is It Was All Alive, and I am so glad I read it because in some ways,

it was it was cathartic for me to read because, you know, it's so secret.

I'm a Democrat, a little left of center, and always had these suspicions about the Republican Party,

but you as a creature of the Republican Party, someone who helps set up the Republican Party,

to hear you just sort of, what's the right word to describe what you do in this book before we dive

right in? Look, I started on the quest that ended with this book, asking myself,

...