July 16, 2018

“Surrender Summit” Roundup

Metzel Mikhail/TASS via ZUMA

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Now fully alert, I’m making the rounds of TV and the print media. So far, Mike Pence has defended Trump’s performance in Helsinki, but that seems to be about it. Here’s a quick roundup:

  • On CNN they are openly talking about whether the pee tape is real.
  • Michael Anton — a diehard Trump supporter who worked at the White House until recently — cancelled his appearance on CNN because he said he couldn’t defend Trump.
  • Conservative journalist Byron York on Fox: “Putin wasn’t taking the side of the US intelligence service. That’s a significant mistake.”
  • Anderson Cooper: “Perhaps one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president at a Russian summit ever.”

  • John King: “You should call this the surrender summit.”
  • Charles Sykes: “On Monday, Trump found that bigger bully and his cowering was the embarrassment heard round the world….Trump’s performance is frequently compared to Neville Chamberlain. But this is unfair to Chamberlain, who, although deeply wrongheaded, was in fact a serious and patriotic man. Trump’s performance in Helsinki was something else altogether, a performance so servile that we struggle to place it in context, because there are no parallels in the history of the American presidency.”

  • Sen. John McCain: “No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.”
  • Sen. Bob Corker: “I did not think this was a good moment for our country.”
  • Sen. Jeff Flake: “This is shameful.”
  • Thomas Friedman: “Such behavior by an American president is so perverse, so contrary to American interests and values, that it leads to only one conclusion: Donald Trump is either an asset of Russian intelligence or really enjoys playing one on TV.”
  • Paul Ryan: “The president must appreciate that Russia is not our ally. There is no moral equivalence between the United States and Russia, which remains hostile to our most basic values and ideals.”
  • CNN chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto: “A sad and dangerous day for America.”
  • State Department: Nothing. The entire department went dark today.

That’s a sampling from journalists and conservatives. You can probably guess what Democrats had to say about all this.

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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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