September 21, 2019

Impeachment and Nancy Pelosi

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

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Nancy Pelosi is getting a lot of grief over this:

Obviously this is just the latest episode in the longrunning “Why won’t Nancy Pelosi impeach Trump?” melodrama currently playing out among Democratic activists. But while it’s at least arguable that Trump should be impeached for his sundry depredations of both law and ethics up to now, it’s not arguable that he should be impeached over Ukrainegate. So far, here’s all we know:

  • A whistleblower filed a complaint against someone, which the inspector general considers “urgent” and “credible.”
  • Various blind news reports say the complaint is about Trump and possibly involves a promise made to Ukraine if they’d open an investigation into Joe Biden’s son.

I’m sure I don’t have to point out that this isn’t even close to impeachable, do I? It could become impeachable at any second if a transcript of the Trump-Ukraine phone call leaks, but that hasn’t happened yet.

If that does happen, and if the transcript is as bad as we think it is, then I’ll join the chorus demanding impeachment hearings and forcing Republicans to either join in or defend Trump’s corruption. But not until then.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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