September 11, 2022

CNN Pundit: Biden Should Invite Trump to Attend the Queen’s Funeral With Him

Lol.

Spoiler: Trump will not be joining Biden on Air Force One. Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP Photo

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When the Queen of England died on Sept. 8, CNN did what it usually does in response to such milestones: It hauled out pundits to blather endlessly while saying nothing of substance. But even by these modest standards, Jeff Zeleny, the network’s chief national affairs correspondent, posited a scenario that stands out for its vapidity. He used the occasion to mount one of his ilk’s most prized hobbyhorses: The idea of a lost utopia of bipartisan comity that could be resurrected—if only Democratic politicians took an extra step and were kinder to their foes. 

While he was president, Zeleny noted, Barack Obama invited his living predecessors to travel to South Africa with him to attend the funeral of Nelson Mandela. Wouldn’t it be nice, Zeleny mused, if “in the spirit of forgiving and giving,” President Joe Biden were to reprise Obama’s presidential gesture and invite Donald Trump to join him on an Air Force One, to cross the Atlantic to mourn the fallen monarch. Zeleny did not mention the remarkably awkward stroll Trump once took with Queen Elizabeth.

 

Even as he aired the proposal, Zeleny seemed to acknowledge how preposterous it was. Furrowing his brow, Zeleny allowed, “I doubt it will happen.” Still, he’s left us to imagine the rhetorical (and perhaps physical) bare-knuckled septuagenarian cage match at 40,000 feet that would ensue if Biden and Trump were trapped on a trans-Atlantic flight. 

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WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. It's going to be a nail-biter, and we really need to see donations from this specific ask coming in strong if we're going to get there.

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