McCain Tears Into Trump For Congratulating Putin

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After spending almost two decades systematically undermining opposition parties, Vladimir Putin was elected to a historic fourth term as president of Russia on Sunday in a contest that, though never in doubt, was marred by allegations of ballot stuffing.

Though the reaction to the victory was mostly muted among western democracies, the heads of state of many less democratic countries like Syria, Venezuela… and the United States called the Kremlin to wish the strongman a hearty huzzah. 

“I had a call with President Putin and congratulated him on the victory his electoral victory,” President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “We will probably get together in the not too distant future.”

The “very good call” did not go unnoticed. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a fiery statement denouncing the move.

“An American president does not lead the Free World by congratulating dictators on winning sham elections. And by doing so with Vladimir Putin, President Trump insulted every Russian citizen who was denied the right to vote in a free and fair election to determine their country’s future, including the countless Russian patriots who have risked so much to protest and resist Putin’s regime.” 

This is not the first time some Senate Republicans have voiced criticism of the White House. Along with McCain, who has voted with the president 83 percent of the time, Jeff Flake, who has voted with Trump 85.9 percent of the time, Bob Corker, 86.2 percent, and Lindsey Graham, 88.1 percent, have also regularly voiced words in disagreement with Trump.

They probably aren’t thrilled with the Putin call either.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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