March 26, 2019

GOP Hack Says Obama Should Apologize for Russian Hacking

Pete Souza/White House

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Behold Scott Jennings, longtime conservative advisor and commentator, explaining to Democrats that they should let the whole Trump-Russia thing go:

No matter how disappointed the Schiffs and Swalwells are now, they must issue mea culpas for dividing the country — to begin to heal this nation today and prepare a clean slate for the next Democrat to occupy the Oval Office….Former President Obama also has a role to play in healing this nation and saving his party’s next White House occupant. Mueller’s report proved two things: Trump did not collude with Russia, but a great many Russians interfered in our democracy on Obama’s watch, after they invaded Crimea and shoved Obama aside in Syria. A word from the former president acknowledging his administration’s failure to stop a hostile foreign power from attacking our democracy would help Washington move to the next task: securing our democracy so the Russians or any other foreign actor can’t hurt us again.

The chutzpah here is truly epic. Remember this?

In early September [of 2016], Johnson, Comey, and Monaco arrived on Capitol Hill in a caravan of black SUVs for a meeting with 12 key members of Congress, including the leadership of both parties. The meeting devolved into a partisan squabble. “The Dems were, ‘Hey, we have to tell the public,’ ” recalled one participant. But Republicans resisted, arguing that to warn the public that the election was under attack would further Russia’s aim of sapping confidence in the system.

And this from Joe Biden?

Mitch McConnell—who I get on with well and who’s a smart guy—Mitch McConnell wanted no part of having a bipartisan commitment that we would say, essentially, Russia’s doing this. Stop. Bipartisan, so it couldn’t be used as a weapon against the democratic nominee of a president trying to use the intelligence community…. Brennan and company came up and said: Here’s what we know. Why don’t we put out a bipartisan warning to Russia—hands off, man, or there’s going to be a problem? Democrat, Republican. Well, they would have no part of it.

But yes, it’s Obama who should apologize for the Russian hacking. Unbelievable.

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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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