January 30, 2017

Obama Just Released His First Statement Since Leaving the White House to Support National Protests

He’s back.

Reuters/ZUMA

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In his first official statement since departing the White House, former President Barack Obama on Monday expressed support for the nationwide protests sparked by President Donald Trump’s executive order that temporarily bars refugees and immigrants from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the US.

While he did not specifically mention the president’s actions, Obama’s statement rejected the Trump administration’s recent defense of the executive order as being similar to Obama’s immigration policy in 2011.

“The president fundamentally disagrees with the notion of discriminating against individuals because of their faith or religion,” Obama’s spokesman Kevin Lewis wrote.

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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 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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