January 21, 2020

Watch Chuck Schumer Make the Case for Impeachment in 90 Seconds

“We are staring down an erosion of the sacred democratic principles for which our founders fought a bloody war of independence.”

Stefani Reynolds/CNP/Zuma

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Addressing the Senate at the outset of the historic impeachment trial against President Donald Trump, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the offenses of which Trump is accused “crimes against democracy itself.”

“It’s hard to imagine a greater subversion of our democracy than for powers outside our borders to determine the elections from within,” the senator from New York said. “For a foreign country to attempt such a thing on its own is bad enough. For an American president to deliberately solicit such a thing, to blackmail a foreign country with military assistance to help him win an election, is unimaginably worse.”

Schumer then attacked Trump’s oft-repeated claim that Article Two of the Constitution enables him to “do whatever he wants.”

“We are staring down an erosion of the sacred democratic principles for which our founders fought a bloody war of independence,” he concluded.

Watch the full address below:

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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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