April 3, 2020

An Interview With Elizabeth Warren: Trump’s $500 Billion Coronavirus “Slush Fund” and More

And does she want to be Joe Biden’s running mate?

Mother Jones

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Few people know more about conducting financial oversight during an economic crisis than Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who led the congressional panel that monitored how billions in federal bailout funds were spent—and misspent—following the 2008 crash. This week, she Zoomed with Mother Jones’ Washington, DC bureau chief David Corn from the back porch of her Cambridge home with her golden retriever, Bailey, by her side. Warren, who last month ended her presidential bid, discussed what could go wrong with the Trump administration’s $500 billion coronavirus corporate bailout fund and how best to monitor this “slush fund.” She also recounted her efforts two years ago to get answers from John Bolton after he abruptly disbanded the National Security Council’s global health security unit and talked about whether she is interested in the veep slot on the Democratic presidential ticket.

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

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