In his new book Demagogue, former Boston Globe scribe Larry Tye digs up the vile threats Senator Joe McCarthy made to Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith.

Interview by Colin W. Sargent

What about today’s political climate inspired you to write Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy?
The idea for Demagogue came partly from my earlier biography of Bobby Kennedy, when his widow Ethel and others told me things about Joe McCarthy that I’d never imagined. And it came from Don Ritchie, the historian emeritus of the U.S. Senate. He organized and annotated the transcripts of McCarthy’s closed-door hearings and convinced me there was not just an opportunity, but a need for a new biography of the senator. President Trump’s election was the clincher.

 Read the full interview with Larry Tye in the digital magazine above.