Is It Finally Time for Republicans to Cut the Crap?

President Trump leaves the White House for Walter Reed medical center on Friday.Sarah Silbiger/CNP via ZUMA

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As of this writing, here’s the list of people who have contracted COVID-19 in the outbreak among DC politicians:

  1. Donald Trump
  2. Melania Trump
  3. Hope Hicks
  4. Sen. Thom Tillis
  5. Sen. Ron Johnson
  6. Sen. Mike Lee
  7. Chris Christie
  8. White House staffer
  9. Another White House staffer
  10. One reporter
  11. Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president
  12. Ronna McDaniel, chair of the RNC
  13. Fr. John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame
  14. Bill Stepien, Trump campaign manager

It’s inevitable that eventually some Democrat will report testing positive for the coronavirus, but it’s striking that so far it’s 12 Republicans out of 14 cases (plus two unknowns who attended the announcement ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett). Doesn’t this have to be a wakeup call for Republicans? As a matter of pure self-preservation, don’t they have to cut the crap and start urging everyone to wear masks and maintain social distancing? We’ll find out, I guess.

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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.

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