March 1, 2017

Trump Once Again Covers Up His Own Failure on Yemen Raid

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Watching CNN after Trump’s speech, I heard Gloria Borger talk about how authentic Trump’s tribute to Ryan Owens was. Here’s what Trump said:

We are blessed to be joined tonight by Carryn Owens, the widow of a U.S. Navy special operator, Senior Chief William “Ryan” Owens. Ryan died as he lived: a warrior, and a hero — battling against terrorism and securing our nation.

I just spoke to General [Jim] Mattis, who reconfirmed that, and I quote, “Ryan was a part of a highly successful raid that generated large amounts of vital intelligence that will lead to many more victories in the future against our enemies.” Ryan’s legacy is etched into eternity. For as the Bible teaches us, there is no greater act of love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Ryan laid down his life for his friends, for his country and for our freedom — we will never forget him.

This was, perhaps, the most inauthentic part of Trump’s entire speech. It was there for one reason only: to exonerate his own bad judgment by insisting yet again that the Yemen raid was “highly successful.”

It wasn’t. It was hastily planned because Trump wanted to show that he was tougher on terrorism than Obama. Instead of going over the plan in detail in the Situation Room, he casually approved it over dinner. The raid itself was a mess, apparently because the SEAL team was detected going in. Owens was killed, a helicopter was destroyed, none of the targets were killed, and contra Mattis, it seems to have produced hardly any worthwhile intelligence at all.

Instead of taking responsibility for this, Trump has done the usual: blamed everybody else. He’s implied it was Obama’s fault. He’s implied it was the military’s fault. And when he’s not doing that, he simply claims that it was a huge success and only the FAKE MEDIA says otherwise.

So naturally it became part of his speech tonight. Was his respect for Owens genuine? Of course it was. Is that why he emphasized how successful the raid was? Of course not. That was purely calculated. He was covering up his own failure with the tears of a widow, nothing more.

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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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