London: Salman Rushdie, the Mumbai-born author of Booker Prize-winning novel ‘Midnight’s Children’, said on Monday that he feels lucky to have survived the last year’s brutal stabbing at a literary event in the US as he spoke for the first time about the “colossal attack”.
The 75-year-old British American novelist was giving a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in New York where he is based on August 12 last year when a man stormed the stage and stabbed and punched him several times.
In his first interview since the attack which has caused loss of vision in one eye, the author told The New Yorker’ magazine that his main feeling was one of gratitude to those who showed their support and his family, including sons Zafar and Milan.
“I’m lucky. What I really want to say is that my main overwhelming feeling is gratitude,” Rushdie told the magazine.
“I’m able to get up and walk around. When I say I’m fine, I mean, there are bits of my body that need constant check ups. It was a colossal attack,” he said.
Asked if he felt it had been a mistake to let his guard down in New York, years after the fatwa by Iran’s former supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to assassinate the author over the allegedly “blasphemous” novel The Satanic Verses’, he replied: “Well, I’m asking myself that question, and I don’t know the answer to it. I did have more than 20 years of life. So, is that a mistake?”
“Also, I wrote a lot of books. The Satanic Verses’ was my fifth published book my fourth published novel and this [ Victory City’] is my twenty-first. So, three-quarters of my life as a writer has happened since the fatwa. In a way, you can’t regret your life,” he added.
The celebrated author told the magazine that he was very moved by the tributes that his near-death inspired and is determined to look forward.
“It’s very nice that everybody was so moved by this, you know? I had never thought about how people would react if I was assassinated, or almost assassinated,” he said.
“I’ve tried very hard over these years to avoid recrimination and bitterness. I just think it’s not a good look. One of the ways I’ve dealt with this whole thing is to look forward and not backwards. What happens tomorrow is more important than what happened yesterday,” he added.
“She kind of took over at a point when I was helpless,” he said of his wife, poet and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths.
His latest novel, Victory City’, completed before the attack, traces back to a trip decades ago to Hampi, the site in Karnataka of the ruins of the medieval Vijayanagara empire.
“The first kings of Vijayanagara announced, quite seriously, that they were descended from the moon… It’s like saying, I’ve descended from the same family as Achilles.’ Or Agamemnon. And so, I thought, well, if you could say that, I can say anything,” the author said.
Rushdie’s attacker Hadi Matar is being held in the Chautauqua County Jail in the village of Mayville, charged with attempted murder in the second degree and facing a lengthy prison sentence.
Defying the journalistic maxim that reporters should never be the story, “The Story Behind the Story” frequently chronicles the mundane mechanics of assembling the Times. Recently, the space has featured a first-person piece by a Times reporter about how she got her story about the things people stand in line for these days; how its book critic read and reviewed Prince Harry’s Spare in a day; how its reporter found sources for a piece about young people and personal finance; how its reporter covered the recent 5.6 magnitude earthquake in West Java; inside commentary on the paper’s crossword; a profile of the paper’s photography department; and a profile of a food-truck proprietor who vends on the street outside the Times’ offices.
Other days the feature runs Q&A’s with reporters in which they regurgitate the facts they’ve already conveyed in published pieces about classified documents, Ticketmaster, and the recent German coup plot. (Some of these Q&A’s are double-dribbled from the Times’ “The Daily” podcast.) Then there have been retrospectives on the influence of the paper’s “Snow Fall” feature from 10 years ago and a history of the guest book at Times headquarters. It would be one thing if any of these pieces broke ground or were great reads, but they don’t and they aren’t. Most days’ entries have that tossed off quality that passes for insight when applied to podcasts. The reading experience is like soaking your brain in brackish well water. Perhaps nobody has ever attacked these columns because nobody ever reads them.
The feature swells with such clueless self-regard some days that it recalls former New Republic Editor Michael Kinsley’s jokey response to a colleague who asked him to concoct a magazine title that would appeal to hardcore New Republic readers. Kinsley pitch was New Republic World: The Magazine for Readers of the New Republic. By giving the Times readers re-tastings of pieces they’ve already read, the paper accomplishes the ouroboros design Kinsley imagined.
In theory, a continuing Times feature that critically examined the paper’s output could be salutary for both Times readers and journalists. At a time when radical transparency is in vogue and the need to demystify journalism to a skeptical public has never been greater, “The Story Behind the Story” could be an essential campaign to reading the Times. But in its current form, the project does not come close to serving any real function. It’s unworthy of an institution like the Times.
In theory, an enterprising editor could raise the standards and demand work that is as newsworthy as other Times stories. In fact, the paper has a recent tradition of critical self-reflection. For 14 years, the paper hosted the public editor column that, with varying success, X-rayed and fanny-whacked the Times’ coverage. But the paper spiked the exercise in introspection in 2017, with Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. offering that the “watchdogs” of social media and “readers across the Internet” could fill the void left by the public editor’s departure.
Even after the vanquishing of the public editor, the paper still ran its barbed media column, launched by the late David Carr and continued by Jim Rutenberg and Ben Smith, which occasionally made the Times its subject. But the paper has yet to replace Smith, who departed about a year ago for his Semafor venture, which means that just about the only place in the Times to read about the Times is this soft, accommodating feature that denies its writers the freedom to be fully honest about how their stories come together. Trust me, reader, sometimes the process can be very ugly. Other times, as we’ve seen from the Times feature attests, it’s as exciting as going grocery shopping.
Properly reconstituted, the Times insider feature could take up the slack created by the cashiering of the public editor and the failure to replace Smith. If the paper’s true objective is to reveal “who we are and what we do” and deliver “behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together,” “The Story Behind the Story” could do just that by engaging in Maoist self-criticism exercises that confess the paper’s miscues and goofs and state the paper’s case against its critics.
You could successfully argue that griping about the misuse of a valuable Times print perch in an era when most people engage the paper in its online incarnation is a wasted complaint. But setting the feature’s placement aside, you’re still left with the reality that the world’s top newspaper thinks running an extended, onanistic public relations campaign for itself is a good use of its journalists’ and readers’ time. The first question of any act of journalism is, does the story matter? The second is, who cares? In the case of “The Story Behind the Story,” the answers are “no” and “nobody.”
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Public Editor Daniel Okrent was, by far, the best of the Times’ public editors. Get his collected columns, Public Editor #1, for $4.50 on Abebooks. Send brackish well-water to [email protected]. No new email alert subscriptions are being honored at this time. My Twitter feed needs a public editor. My Mastodon account has marked my Post account for death. My RSS feed blankets itself with the print version of the Times for its afternoon naps
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That pronouncement launched her from relative obscurity into national headlines. And going forward, her prosecutorial experience, the desire of fellow Republicans to rid themselves of Santos and the unique powers of the district attorney’s office put her in a prime position to pounce on the fact-challenged lawmaker.
“This fell into her lap. It’s in her backyard. I think she is more than capable of handling it, and she has the will of the people to do something,” said Vito Palmieri, a Long Island attorney who worked in the Nassau County DA’s office in the 1990s. “That the party wants him gone and she is a Republican doing her job — let’s put it this way — I don’t think that hurts her at all.”
Despite the hew and cry of Democrats, perhaps no one wants Santos out of office more than the Republicans of Nassau County, a leafy suburb abutting New York City that is home to 1.4 million people, many of whom commute into Manhattan.
“He needs help,” Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said about Santos at a recent press conference. “This is not a normal person.”
Blakeman was speaking at an extraordinary event convened by the Nassau County Republican Committee earlier this month, where more than a dozen GOP officials took turns excoriating the freshman lawmaker over lies about everything from his family history (not Jewish) to his education (he did not attend Baruch College, let alone play on its volleyball team).
They had ample reason to fret. Fresh off huge midterm gains there and elsewhere on Long Island, the party will be heading into a tough election season in 2024 with President Joe Biden atop the ticket. With sky-high unfavorability ratings and zero support from fellow party members, Santos will have a tough time clinging to his seat — as evidenced by Democrats and Republicans already drawing up short lists of who might replace him — and could hurt fellow GOP candidates by association.
Rightward shift on Long Island
The midterm red wave that washed over New York City suburbs began building in 2021.
In May that year, the sitting Nassau County DA, a Democrat, was appointed to a judgeship on the state’s highest court, triggering a special election for her successor. As each party scrambled for a candidate, John Wighaus, president of the Nassau County Detectives’ Association, later recalled to Newsday how he introduced Donnelly to the head of the Nassau County GOP.
The then 56-year-old had close to zero political experience. Donnelly had never made a political contribution before 2021, though state campaign finance records show her husband has been a periodic donor to Republican causes.
Her status as a political neophyte was reflected in her campaign ads, where she never addressed the camera. Instead, third parties appeared on-screen to attack her opponent, Democratic state Sen. Todd Kaminsky. Those surrogates included the detectives’ association leader and victims of violent crime, who starred in several spots leading up to the November election.
Donnelly, whose office declined to make her available for an interview, had other professional advantages. She spent her career in the DA’s office working under both Republicans and Democrats, first joining as an assistant district attorney in the District Court Bureau and serving most recently as deputy chief of the Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau.
In the end, few of those details seemed to matter as the race became a proxy for recently changed bail laws in New York state that have drawn Republican criticism and opened a rift within the Democratic Party.
Her run was fueled almost entirely by the local party apparatus. Out of the $1.3 million she raised, nearly $1 million came from the Nassau County GOP, according to state campaign finance records. That cash infusion, along with the relentless focus on bail, propelled her to a resounding 20-point victory over Kaminsky.
And now, as Republicans are hoping to be rid of Santos, she has indicated an eagerness to investigate.
“The numerous fabrications and inconsistencies associated with Congressman-Elect Santos are nothing short of stunning,” she said in a statement in late December, weeks before the county party would reduce their relationship with Santos to cinders. “The residents of Nassau County and other parts of the third district must have an honest and accountable representative in Congress. No one is above the law and if a crime was committed in this county, we will prosecute it.”
That led Joseph Murray, Santos’ attorney, to question whether Donnelly had come under pressure from the Nassau County GOP or protesters calling for an inquiry. Murray said he had supported Donnelly’s run for office in 2021, heartened by her apolitical history, but was disappointed to see the Dec. 28 statement coming from such a seasoned litigator.
“There’s no way a prosecutor of 32 years is going to telegraph an investigation like that to the whole world,” Murray said in an interview. “From a prosecutor’s perspective — not as [Santos’] lawyer — why would you do that?”
Murary declined to discuss any of the allegations against Santos.
The road ahead
Donnelly’s forceful statement stood in stark contrast to federal prosecutors, who declined to comment on a CBS News story that broke news of their probe, and the New York state attorney general, who said she was looking into allegations against Santos.
While each of those offices has its own jurisdiction, there appear to be a few legal avenues for Donnelly to explore.
“They are a very solid office, and they are able to do complex cases,” Howard Master, an attorney who has worked for both state and federal prosecutors, said of the Nassau DA. “Essentially the difference is: Their jurisdiction includes state crimes for which the federal government cannot prosecute.”
Charges related to lying on formal documents or falsifying business records, for example, might serve as a guidepost if Donnelly were to look at Santos’ involvement with an investment fund currently in the crosshairs of the Securities and Exchange Commission. While Santos worked for the company, Harbor City Capital, he was not named as a defendant in a civil lawsuit filed by the SEC.
District attorneys can often be quicker when it comes to mounting investigations compared to their federal counterparts. But in probes involving major figures like elected officials, state prosecutors often take their time to ensure cases are airtight. And it is likely Donnelly’s office is coordinating with the feds, who enjoy several advantages of their own when it comes to gathering testimony and evidence.
“It’s common for state and federal prosecutors who are looking at the same subject to work collaboratively with each other to avoid duplication of efforts in obtaining information from witnesses and other sources of information,” Master said, “and to ensure that the appropriate charges are brought in whichever jurisdiction is best suited to hear [them].”
While Donnelly pledged to uncover any breach of state law, Santos’ fabrications provide much more grist for the feds to bite into: He filed a financial disclosure with the House and submitted campaign finance records to the Federal Election Commission, both actions that fall squarely within the purview of prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York.
Santos’ campaign finance disclosures with the FEC, for example, contain dozens of expenses that fall just cents short of a threshold that would have required him to preserve documentation of those purchases. And he provided dramatically different information on financial disclosure forms filed during his first run for Congress and his successful campaign last year.
“There are blinking red lights related to the comparison between his financial disclosure in 2020 and the entire campaign finance process, including his financial disclosure in 2022,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), who has penned both an ethics complaint against Santos and a bill mandating more disclosure from candidates alongside his colleague Rep. Ritchie Torres, said in an interview.
Thus far, no one has released information even hinting an indictment against Santos is imminent. And, according to Goldman — a former federal prosecutor who has been tapped for the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability — the various probes could ultimately lead somewhere unexpected.
“Investigations are rarely ends-oriented,” he said. “It’s much more often you are investigating one thing, you dig into bank records and then start to see a totally different picture.”
An attorney and a spokesperson for Santos did not return messages.
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With several demonstrations already in the works, Adams urged New Yorkers to express themselves peacefully.
“My message to New York is to respect the wishes of Mr. Nichols’ mother. If you need to express your anger and outrage, do so peacefully,” he said. “My message to the NYPD has been and will continue to be to exercise restraint.”
Adams said prior to his discussion with the White House, he convened a call with elected officials from across government to discuss the release of the footage.
One person familiar with the call said Police Chief Keechant Sewell urged restraint, with the aim of avoiding a repeat of the NYPD’s sometimes violent crackdown on the social justice protests of 2020. Several officials voiced support for reforms to the NYPD on the call, while Adams himself mentioned the potential for bad actors to exploit mass gatherings.
Adams came into office promising a balance between support for law enforcement and preventing overly aggressive policing that has historically afflicted communities of color. The protests planned for Friday evening could prove a major test of that balancing act.
“I have stated over and over again that we have a sacred covenant. Our officers must follow the law and be held accountable for their actions,” he said. “Otherwise there is no law.”
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Adams is the latest in a long line of politicians to focus his rhetoric on the working class. His predecessor, Bill de Blasio, at one point promoted the slogan Working People First. However, Adams has repeatedly stressed that his upbringing by a single mother who worked cleaning houses and his first career as a cop give him insight into the plight of millions of New Yorkers that other politicians can lack.
“Don’t let it fool you — I may wear nice suits,” said Adams, who was dressed for the occasion in a dark suit offset by a white pocket square and magenta tie. “But I’m a blue-collar cat.”
On the subject of crime, which largely impacts low-income communities, Adams has urged fellow Democrats to talk more frankly about the successes of policing and the immediate boost that solving crimes can provide to the public’s confidence in government.
“The party, I believe, articulates long-term solutions to a problem. And that’s fine to do so and we should have a long-term plan. … But people are saying, what about right now?” he said during a Wednesday appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “How are we going to intercede with that 16-year-old child that was stabbed, or that mother who was shot by a random bullet?”
During Thursday’s speech, Adams touted a recent drop in crime in New York City, which he has attributed to his support for the NYPD, the relaunch of a controversial plainclothes unit and his focus on seizing illegal guns.
“I want to thank everyone who has supported this effort, especially Governor [Kathy] Hochul and President [Joe] Biden,” the mayor said. “They understand that fighting the scourge of illegal guns is a top priority for our city.”
Adams has appeared happy to clash with left-leaning members of the party who are skeptical of the NYPD. And he pledged Thursday to focus during the upcoming year on shoplifting, robberies and burglaries while also pushing — again — for changes to the state’s criminal justice laws in Albany with an eye toward keeping a small number of repeat offenders in custody.
“We know who they are, and we need to get them off our streets,” he said.
Other planks of his working people’s agenda include apprenticeships and career training to steer more students into higher paying jobs. The mayor noted that the unemployment rate for Black New Yorkers was three times higher than white residents.
He also pledged to provide free internet for more low-income New Yorkers while streamlining the process of receiving food assistance and other social service programs from the city. Health officials will begin providing free health care to those who have spent more than seven days in a homeless shelter and will begin to roll out centers specifically geared to residents experiencing mental health challenges. The city will also seek legislation that would allow New Yorkers to retain public benefits for six months after starting a new job, and will expand access to fresh food by beefing up city investment in a program to help connect people with groceries.
“You can’t have Whole Foods in Park Slope and junk food in Brownsville,” the mayor said in one of many off-script remarks that drew applause from the crowd of politicians who gathered for the speech.
Adams’ effort to define his brand of Democratic politics comes as he seeks other wins on the national level.
On Thursday, the mayor reiterated his call for the federal government to provide aid for the more than 40,000 asylum-seekers who have arrived in New York City, and plugged the city’s bid to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
And on Thursday he made other major policy announcements, including a citywide composting program and rezonings in Manhattan and Staten Island.
“City government must work to improve the public good, support an economy that works for all, and care for the working people who make it possible,” Adams said as he rounded out his address. “Jobs, safety, housing, and care — without these pillars of support, cities crumble, institutions fall, society weakens. We will not allow that to happen in New York.”
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The lawsuit was filed just weeks after James sued Trump, three of his adult children and his business empire for fraudulent financial practices. She is seeking up to $250 million as well as an order blocking Trump from real estate transactions in New York for five years.
Trump has blasted the suit, including after James won a judicial order in November that installed an independent monitor over his business dealings as the New York case proceeds. That case is ongoing.
There was no immediate comment from Trump’s attorneys on why they dropped his Florida lawsuit, but the federal judge overseeing the case recently ripped his claims as “both vexatious and frivolous.”
The withdrawal Friday also came the morning after the same Florida judge ordered nearly $1 million in sanctions against Trump and his attorney Alina Habba in a lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and federal officials.
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