January 29, 2021

Yes, Sen. Tim Kaine Is Still Harmonica Dude

In case you were wondering.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) rocks out on the harmonica at a Senate Christmas event in 2020, with Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on piano.Michael Brochstein/Zuma

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Tim Kaine, the Democratic senator from Virginia and 2016 vice presidential candidate, is back in the spotlight this week for his plans to file a censure resolution that could prevent former President Trump from holding federal office ever again.

That got me thinking, does he still carry all those harmonicas in his briefcase?

It turns out that he does—in his backpack, not a briefcase, his communications director corrected me. He has one in each of the main keys, from A to G, plus an E sharp.

Since the Senate is unlikely to convict Trump of inciting an insurrection, Kaine is writing a resolution that takes language from the 14th Amendment as a workaround to ensure that Trump can’t be reelected in 2024. (The resolution’s prospects in the divided Senate remain unclear.) And, being Tim Kaine, he’ll do all this with a backpack full of harmonicas.

Listen to Kaine jam out below:

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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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