White House Throws McConnell Under the Bus

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This is good news, I suppose:

The White House is willing to cut a deal with Democrats that leaves out Senate Republican legislation aimed at protecting employers, hospitals and schools from coronavirus-related lawsuits, according to two people with knowledge of internal White House planning….One of the people familiar with the administration’s thinking said the measure was “considered important but not absolutely essential.”

Mitch McConnell probably could have gotten his liability shield if he had been more reasonable. There’s a case to be made for some kind of modest “safe harbor” legislation, after all. But McConnell wouldn’t go there. Instead he insisted on a shield so strong it would have protected businesses even from the most egregious negligence. Even the Trump White House was able to see what a political loser this was.

Now let’s get to work on extending unemployment benefits, shall we?

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A full one-third of our annual fundraising comes in this month alone. That’s risky, because a strong December means our newsroom is on the beat and reporting at full strength—but a weak one means budget cuts and hard choices ahead.

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Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do.

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