August 30, 2018

Without Evidence, Trump Accuses NBC’s Lester Holt of “Fudging” Interview

He also appeared to admit that he has indeed considered firing both Mueller and Sessions.

Ron Sachs/ZUMA

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President Donald Trump on Thursday accused NBC’s Lester Holt of “fudging the tape” of the May 2017 interview during which the president admitted he planned to fire former FBI director James Comey regardless of the Justice Department’s recommendation, directly contradicting the White House’s initial statements.

That extraordinary admission, along with the president’s disclosure to Holt that the “Russia thing” had been on his mind before firing Comey, has reportedly been at the center of the special counsel’s investigation into whether Trump has attempted to obstruct justice.

The president did not offer any evidence to back any allegation of the tape being manipulated. He instead sought to remind the public that he was “not under investigation.”

In something of a follow-up to his Wednesday tweet announcing the forthcoming departure of White House counsel Don McGahn, Trump denied reports that McGahn had persuaded him not to fire special counsel Robert Mueller and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. But the president’s tweet, which misspelled the word “counsel,” appeared to confirm that he has contemplated those firings, either one of which would be certain to kick off a political crisis.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1035138155794575360

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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.

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