November 3, 2017

Trump Starts Morning by Calling for the Prosecution of His Political Opponents

The president is angry.

Alex Edelman/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

President Donald Trump demanded on Friday that the Justice Department and FBI investigate his political opponents, claiming federal authorities are ignoring the “dishonesty” of Hillary Clinton and the Democrats. He also referred to a new excerpt from former Democratic National Committee interim chairwoman Donna Brazille’s forthcoming book detailing the presidential election, in which she alleges Clinton rigged the nomination process against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

The series of angry tweets comes a day after the president expressed frustration over his lack of authority to direct the Justice Department to investigate his favored issues. 

“I look at what’s happening with the Justice Department,” Trump said on the Larry O’Connor Show Thursday. “Well, why aren’t they going after Hillary Clinton with her emails and with her, the dossier?”

“I’m very unhappy with it that the Justice Department isn’t going,” he continued. “I am not supposed to be doing the kind of things that I would love to be doing—and I am very frustrated by it.”

In recent weeks, Trump has launched fresh new attacks against Clinton, alleging that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between his campaign and the Russian government was distracting from the real criminal actions of his former presidential rival. 

Trump ended his indignant exhortations on Friday by citing Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)’s recent comments that she believed the nomination process was rigged. He did so by resurrecting his racially charged moniker for the senator, who claimed Native American ancestry: Pocahontas. 

When asked about his tweets, Trump told reporters, “I don’t know. I’m really not involved with the Justice Department. I’d like to let it run itself. But honestly, they should be looking at the Democrats. They should be looking at Podesta and all of that dishonesty. They should be looking at a lot of things. And a lot of people are disappointed in the Justice Department, including me.”

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate