September 22, 2016

Donald Trump Is Still a Birther

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Ben Garbarek, a local news reporter in Toledo, asked Donald Trump today what it was that changed his mind about President Obama’s birthplace:

BG: This announcement earlier this week with you saying that you believe President Obama was in fact born in the United States, after all the years where you’ve expressed some doubt, what changed?

Trump: Well I just wanted to get on with, I wanted to get on with the campaign. A lot of people were asking me questions. We want to talk about jobs. We want to talk about the military. We want to talk about ISIS and get rid of ISIS. We want to talk about bringing jobs back to this area because you’ve been decimated so we just wanted to get back on the subject of jobs, military, taking care of our vets, etc.

He also asked Trump about his foundation:

BG: And with the Washington Post report out this week about the Trump Foundation. Could you explain to people why you may have used some charitable donations for personal uses?

Trump: The foundation is really rare. It gives money to vets. It’s really been doing a good job. I think we put that to sleep just by putting out the last report.”

This is all the usual gibberish, barely worth taking note of. Except for one thing: Trump must know that he’s going to have to answer these questions in the debate on Monday. Even if Lester Holt turns out to be a complete doofus, he’s going to insist on Trump actually addressing the substance of these issues. When did you change your mind about birtherism? What changed your mind? Why did you use a charitable foundation to pay business expenses? Have you done it more than the two times the Post caught you at?

I know Trump never does anything as lame as prepping for a debate, but his staff must at least be mulling over what kind of answer he’s going to give to these questions. This kind of huffing and puffing isn’t going to cut it on live national television.

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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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