July 9, 2018

Mitch McConnell Doesn’t Seem to Care Where the Babies Are

The Senate majority leader makes as much pretty clear with a lame joke.

On Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was greeted by a group of activists chanting “Vote you out” and “Where are the babies?”—a reference to the Trump administration’s immigration policy that has separated more than 2,000 children from their parents—outside a restaurant parking lot in Louisville, Kentucky.

According to videos of the incident, McConnell left the parking lot without once acknowledging the protesters or responding to their questions. “If the Leader comments on being called a fascist and a supporter of ICE by a small handful of extremist protesters then I will let you know,” McConnell’s spokesman David Popp told the Washington Post after the encounter quickly went viral on social media.

After two days, McConnell finally responded to his “extremist protesters.” The Senate majority leader made it personal with an “MM” sign-off:

McConnell’s belated tweet on Monday attempted to humorously address his critics at home and those who similarly approached his wife, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, outside the couple’s Washington townhouse last month. That effort comes as the Trump administration struggles to reunite migrant children who have been separated from their families in time to meet a court-ordered deadline.

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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.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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