October 22, 2019

Trump Compares Impeachment to a “Lynching”

The incendiary tweet came as a new poll showed that support for his removal from office reached a new high.

Yuri Gripas/ZUMA

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Shortly after a new poll showed that half of Americans now support his removal from office, President Donald Trump on Tuesday offered up a wildly inappropriate and offensive comparison:

The “lynching” description does not resonate with most Americans, who increasingly support Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. Even a handful of Republican lawmakers now back the probe. It does, however, come as the latest self-victimizing tantrum Trump has thrown in recent weeks, as key witnesses in the Ukraine scandal have ignored the White House’s demand for silence with testimony damning for Trump and his allies. And this time he did it by likening his political situation to the brutal murders of African Americans.

Those depositions continue with Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat to Ukraine, who is set to appear before House investigators today. Taylor, in text messages released by Democrats earlier this month, had called Trump’s Ukraine policy “crazy.”

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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