June 14, 2019

Trump: “Of Course” You Report Foreign Campaign Dirt

Fox News

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The inevitable Phase 2 of Foreigndirtgate took place this morning:

Under fire for saying earlier in the week that “I’d take it” and scoffing at the notion that he should call authorities, Mr. Trump shifted by saying that while he would still look at incriminating information provided by a hostile foreign power about an election opponent he would “absolutely” report such an encounter. “Of course, you give it to the F.B.I. or report it to the attorney general or somebody like that,” Mr. Trump said on “Fox & Friends” in a telephone interview on Friday morning. “But of course you do that. You couldn’t have that happen with our country.”

If this follows the usual pattern, Phase 3 will happen in about a week. That’s the part where Trump, counting on the fact that memories have gotten a little foggy, claims that he’s always said he’d call the FBI if some foreigner offered him campaign dirt. His spear carriers in Congress and the media will all join in, agreeing that the liberal media, as usual, is deliberately impugning Trump’s integrity by misquoting him.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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