Pelosi and Schiff, Simply Appearing on TV, Spark Another Meltdown. That’s a Win for Pro-Impeachers.

The president loses it over a rather unremarkable press conference.

Evan Vucci/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced late Tuesday that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, would be making a special appearance at her weekly press briefing, setting off a wave of intrigue among avid impeachment-watchers.
 
“Please be an impeachment inquiry into Pence, Barr, and Pompeo, or any combination of the above,” Louise Mensch, the former British MP prone to conspiracy theories, prayed. “Gonna be a busy, busy, busy, busy day,” a CNN reporter predicted. “Checks watch. Sets alarm.”
 
Alas, the press conference Wednesday morning turned out to be rather underwhelming. “Does anybody in this room care about the cost of prescription drugs?” Pelosi asked reporters, knowing full well that the answer was in fact, nah.
 
But President Donald Trump appears to have witnessed something entirely different. Rather than find relief in the nothing-burger briefing, the exceedingly thin-skinned president logged onto Twitter to fire off a series of furious tweets.

Trump then ranted before reporters in the Oval Office, spewing a stream of false attacks against his political enemies. 

Failing to achieve catharsis with the Oval Office tantrum, Trump continued to lash out at a joint press conference. It was spectacular:

The reaction could be considered a small, but meaningful victory for Democrats. By simply goading the president into a predictable meltdown over nothing, the case for his unfitness for office grew even stronger. 

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.

payment methods

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.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate