May 8, 2019

Sarah Sanders Explains What Executive Privilege Isn’t

President Trump today refused to turn over the full, unredacted version of the Mueller report to Congress. In return, House Democrats have threatened to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt. Sarah Sanders lashed back, saying Democrats were horrible people etc. etc. Then she added this:

Faced with Chairman Nadler’s blatant abuse of power, and at the Attorney General’s request, the President has no other option than to make a protective assertion of executive privilege.

IANAL, but I’m pretty sure that’s not how executive privilege works. It applies to (some) conversations between the president and his senior advisors, and it’s intended to allow the president to consult freely and receive candid advice.

It is not intended to be used as retribution against a political opponent you don’t like.

In any case, all this does is make Democrats really curious about what’s behind those redactions. It must be smokin’ hot.

Speaking of which, I’m writing this at lunch in Galax, Virginia. I had the Texas brisket sandwich with smokin’ hot BBQ sauce. In just a few minutes I’ll leave Virginia and enter North Carolina.

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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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