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It’s Wednesday, November 19. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Eli Lake on why Donald Trump owes Bill Clinton. Should Iryna Zarutska’s schizophrenic murderer face the death penalty? And much more.

But first: Lonely young men, past and present.

In recent weeks, the American right has gone to war with itself because of the mainstreaming of a once-fringe figure: Nick Fuentes. The white supremacist livestreamer built a cult following among the “Groypers,” a group of isolated young men who subscribe to some of the most noxious ideas out there. More recently, his interviews with Tucker Carlson and others have brought him in from the periphery. Now, as Gabe Kaminsky and Tanner Nau report, Fuentes plans to capitalize on his moment in the limelight. How? By using a revamped nonprofit to “infiltrate politics” and steer the direction of the Republican Party.

Is Fuentes serious, or is it just a troll? And can he really sway today’s GOP? Gabe and Tanner talk to Republican insiders about the man who has their party in his crosshairs.

David Samuels finds an unsettling echo of the present in the Vienna of more than a century ago. There lived a lonely young man named Adolf Hitler. David revisits a forgotten account by “the single and exclusive friend of Adolf Hitler” in Vienna and finds a portrait that is “eerily familiar, and even sympathetic, in a way that continues to give me nightmares.”

David flew to Austria to find out more about the city Hitler claimed had shaped him. He discovers an Adolf that looks uncannily like certain young American men today.

Back to today—and the ructions on the right. On the latest Free Press livestream, Will Rahn was joined by Sam Tanenhaus, whose biography of William F. Buckley was published earlier this year, to talk about the ongoing fight for the soul of American conservatism. Watch their conversation and read an edited transcript here:

—Oliver Wiseman

The Presidential Guide to Surviving a Scandal

Eli Lake

On Tuesday, the House voted 427–1 to release all remaining files—emails, transcripts, recordings—that the federal government still has pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein. We’re at a dramatic moment in a scandal built for our populist moment. And yet one of the mysteries of the Epstein scandal is why it isn’t an even bigger deal. In a grimly ironic twist, the answer lies in the scandals involving two men who were once friends with Epstein: Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. Eli Lake dives into the pasts of two presidents to explain our tawdry present. Read full story

Iryna Zarutska’s Killer Does Not Deserve to Die

Sally Satel

This August, DeCarlos Brown Jr. stabbed Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in the neck on a light rail train in Charlotte. She was pronounced dead within minutes after the horrific attack. Now there is a push to remove legal hurdles that would prevent the use of capital punishment in the case. But does Brown, a diagnosed schizophrenic, deserve to die? No, says psychiatrist Sally Satel. Not because the death penalty is immoral per se, but because “no civilized or lawful purpose is served by executing severely mentally ill defendants whose psychosis distorted their moral logic.” Read full story

BONUS: Why the Ramones, Tom Paine, and Steve Jobs Are All Punk

Eli Lake

Last week on “Breaking History,” Eli Lake traced the roots of punk music 2,400 years to Socrates, the father of philosophy. In a bonus episode of the pod, Eli is joined by “Reason” editor-at-large and fellow punk obsessive Nick Gillespie to identify a few more punks, including Thomas Paine and Steve Jobs. To listen to this bonus episode, become a paid subscriber to The Free Press today. Read full story

Laura Osnes Didn’t Get the Covid Shot. It Ended Her Broadway Career.

Zac Bissonnette