October 3, 2020

Is It Finally Time for Republicans to Cut the Crap?

President Trump leaves the White House for Walter Reed medical center on Friday.Sarah Silbiger/CNP via ZUMA

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As of this writing, here’s the list of people who have contracted COVID-19 in the outbreak among DC politicians:

  1. Donald Trump
  2. Melania Trump
  3. Hope Hicks
  4. Sen. Thom Tillis
  5. Sen. Ron Johnson
  6. Sen. Mike Lee
  7. Chris Christie
  8. White House staffer
  9. Another White House staffer
  10. One reporter
  11. Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president
  12. Ronna McDaniel, chair of the RNC
  13. Fr. John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame
  14. Bill Stepien, Trump campaign manager

It’s inevitable that eventually some Democrat will report testing positive for the coronavirus, but it’s striking that so far it’s 12 Republicans out of 14 cases (plus two unknowns who attended the announcement ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett). Doesn’t this have to be a wakeup call for Republicans? As a matter of pure self-preservation, don’t they have to cut the crap and start urging everyone to wear masks and maintain social distancing? We’ll find out, I guess.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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