July 11, 2017

Yes, Don Jr. Is an Idiot. But That’s Also the Primary Defense of Don Sr.

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Even the New York Post has turned against Don Jr.:


Actually, this is the Post doing its best to defend Trump Sr. If everyone can be convinced that Junior’s Russia meeting was merely the work of a pea-brained buffoon, then it means there’s no real story here. It’s just the family idiot trying to impress dad.

Of course, Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also in this meeting, and they weren’t there to talk about Russian adoptions. They were there hoping to get dirt on Hillary Clinton provided by the Russian government. And unlike Don Jr., Manafort was a political pro and Kushner is currently a top White House advisor. What are the odds that they didn’t pass along any of this to Trump Sr.?

Hard to say, but the “Junior is an idiot” defense is supposed to keep us from even asking. Needless to say, the genius of this approach is that Don Jr., is, in fact, an idiot. It’s one of the few opinions that unites our sadly divided country.¹ But we should all be wary of going too far down this road. Maybe this whole affair really is just the crayon scribblings of the family dolt, but we don’t know that yet. We have many months of investigation to go.

¹Another one: Anthony Weiner is an idiot.

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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.

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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?

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