November 1, 2019

Please Let Trump’s “Fireside Chat” Happen

Andrew Harrer/ZUMA

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President Donald Trump has tweeted seven times in the past month that Americans should “READ THE TRANSCRIPT!”

It’s an odd demand considering many people did, in fact, read the White House’s reconstruction of his now-infamous July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and it was widely viewed as highly damaging for the president. The document also featured several curious ellipses, which a top Ukraine expert with firsthand knowledge of the conversation told investigators this week marked the omission of key details related to Trump’s demands for an investigation into his political enemies. According to the New York Times, that revelation didn’t “fundamentally change lawmakers’ understanding of the call,” but it does further undermine Trump’s insistence that the document somehow exonerates him.

Still, “read the transcript” has emerged as Trump’s go-to, shorthand defense, a kind of catchall rejoinder against impeachment. Now, with allegations of multiple quid pro quos piling up, “read the transcript” appears ready for primetime. Trump told the Washington Examiner on Thursday:

“This is over a phone call that is a good call. At some point, I’m going to sit down, perhaps as a fireside chat on live television, and I will read the transcript of the call because people have to hear it.

“When you read it, it’s a straight call.”

In the same interview, Trump floated the idea of selling t-shirts emblazoned with the line. 

I personally endorse the roaring, fireside chat. I just ask that Trump wears the t-shirt when he does it.

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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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