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We’re all poring over Hillary Clinton’s email these days, definitely an oddity for a presidential campaign. I suppose this is because Clinton left the State Department three years ago, which is enough time for the gears to turn and her email archives to be released. Most presidential candidates are legislators or sitting governors, whose emails are still under wraps.

But there is another candidate whose behind-the-scenes actions could be scrutinized right now. Conor Friedersdorf makes a modest proposal:

In the interest of giving the public as accurate an understanding as possible of a leading presidential candidate, NBC’s news division should upload all of the raw footage from The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice to the web. Let voters see what Trump was really like while the show was being filmed….If Trump is legally entitled to block the release of the footage and exercises that option, that, too, would be telling. But maybe he won’t mind extra publicity.

I wouldn’t bother going the legal route on this. What we need is a whistleblower, someone who will leak the best (i.e., worst) of Trump’s outtakes directly to YouTube. Let’s make this happen, people.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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