January 29, 2016

How I Got Barred From Donald Trump’s Chaotic Anti-Fox Rally

Richard Ellis/ZUMA

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Tonight I joined a small but growing club of reporters who have been banned from Donald Trump events. Officially, this is not true. Officially, as Trump’s spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, told me in an email, Thursday night’s event at Drake University in Des Moines was “well over capacity.” However, every journalist I encountered got in—including a reporter from Canada who was promptly credentialed.

Every reporter, that is, except those who, like me, seem to be banned. Braving the cold to chat with the long line of people waiting to get into Trump’s event, I came across other reporters blacklisted by Trump. There was BuzzFeed‘s McKay Coppins, whom Trump apparently still hasn’t forgiven for this story from two years ago. Coppins had joined up with a German reporter who was also not allowed in. (I’m not sure why.) A student kindly suggested we warm up in the university’s library, where we were joined by the Daily Beast‘s Olivia Nuzzi, also barred from entering.

More Trump events will take place this campaign season, and perhaps Mother Jones reporters’ luck will change. But I’m not holding my breath. One of my colleagues was escorted from a Trump event last month by security. It seems that once Trump and his team have decided someone is not on the list, their word is just about final.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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