November 1, 2020

FBI Reportedly Investigating Texas “Trump Train” Incident

Trump supporters swarmed a Biden-Harris bus on Saturday.

A rally in support of the campaign to re-elect President Trump is held in New York.AP

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The FBI is reportedly investigating a Saturday incident in which Trump supporters, many of whom were allegedly armed, used their vehicles to swarm a Biden-Harris campaign bus that was traveling on an interstate in Central Texas. As my colleague Ali Breland noted yesterday, neither Joe Biden nor Kamala Harris was on the bus traveling from San Antonio to Austin, but the startling episode prompted the campaign to cancel a scheduled event. CNN reported Sunday that according to a law enforcement source, the bureau is now looking into the matter.

The incident was one of several around the country this weekend to prompt accusations of harassment and intimidation, with pro-Trump motorists seen blocking traffic and shutting down bridges in support of the president on the final weekend before the election. 

The string of incidents, while shocking, isn’t exactly surprising. The Trump campaign, including the president himself, has all but sanctioned such disturbances. “It’d be great if you guys could all get together, head down to McAllen and give Kamala Harris a nice ‘Trump Train’ welcome,” the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said in a video message last week. “Get out there, have some fun, enjoy it.” Such directives have fueled fears of potential violence at the polls on Tuesday, as President Trump encourages his supporters to keep a lookout for voter fraud. (Reminder, voter fraud is a nearly non-existent problem in the United States.) On Saturday, as videos of the Texas “Trump Train” circulated, the president declared, “I love Texas!”

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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.

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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.

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