Some questions about what David Corn wrote last week.

And some encouraging news to go with them. [Mother Jones]( MoJo Reader, I have some encouraging news and a couple of questions for you today. The encouraging news: Our December fundraising drive is starting to trend in the right direction. We still have a whopping $160,000 to raise these next 4 days, and [I truly hope you'll consider a year-end donation to support team's reporting if you can right now](, but over the years I've learned that December is always a nail-biter—you never know what will happen at the last minute. It's nerve-wracking, as is just about everything for all of us, but our goal is starting to feel within reach and if we can finish the year, this bizarre year, the way we all made it this far—with determination—we'll get there. Please, if you're able to, [support Mother Jones' independent journalism with a year-end gift to help us close our fundraising gap and start 2021 on track](. Now I want to focus on that "independent" part for a brief moment. It's a word that gets thrown around a lot, and means many different things in different contexts. For me, helping lead Mother Jones, it means one thing: No one tells us what to cover or how to cover it. Clara, our editor-in-chief, David Corn in DC, and the other journalists in our newsroom get to make those decisions without anyone interfering, because we don’t answer to anyone but our readers. Why that matters so much was brought home to me in David Corn's email, below, that he sent you before the holiday weekend. Not a lot of people tell it quite like he does: "For rogues, scoundrels, tyrants, princes and princesses of corruption—and their henchmen—the truth is a threat. It must be vanquished." But speaking the truth boldly, with the facts to back it up, is critical when reporting on the norm-shattering news coming from Washington and elsewhere. Independence is why we're able to report on it without fear or favor. Can you imagine David running [his strongest work]( by corporate for approval? Can you imagine Clara and I asking a profit-driven parent company for permission to [send a reporter to work at a private prison](? And spend [eighteen months]( making the story bulletproof? Or convincing a corporate legal department to let us stand tall against a [lawsuit]( from a Republican billionaire determined to rewrite history? Can you imagine telling a boss installed by a hedge fund in deciding [whom to invite to speak at a MoJo event](, we won’t amplify bunk science or white supremacist rhetoric—even if they're a good draw? Can you imagine hearing "go for it" from a tech investor to [write critically]( about [Facebook](—which drives news traffic and throws funding at journalism shops—even when they [throttle our reach for political purposes](? We don't have to ask permission from a corporate boss because [donations from our community of readers]( give Mother Jones the independence to go after the truth and nothing else. I can't begin to tell you how grateful we all are for that. And we’re grateful that along with that independence, we also have interdependence—we are profoundly connected to you, our community. That’s also a pretty unique thing in journalism, and it feels extra important at a time like this. That’s why I’m hopeful that this amazing community will step up with [enough year-end donations so we can raise that final $160,000 we need in the next 4 days]( to end the year strong and tackle 2021 with everything we’ve got. Thanks for reading, Here, in case you missed it, is David's email that I mentioned above, which makes a powerful case for why independent journalism is so important right now. –Monika [Donate]( MoJo Reader, This is how it works. The big lie. The endless spin. The outright denial of facts. Again and again and again. The complete destruction and devaluation of truth for political gain. Overwhelm reality with fiction, concoctions, and false narratives. Embrace deceit and duplicity. For rogues, scoundrels, tyrants, princes and princesses of corruption—and their henchmen—the truth is a threat. It must be crushed. It must be vanquished. Abuse of power cannot exist alongside accountability. Malefactors cannot survive within an atmosphere of truth. It is a suffocating poison for them. So they must deceive, and they must dissemble. I wrote those words just over a year ago about [one of the many times]( Attorney General William Barr brazenly provided cover for Donald Trump, and I'm including them here today because they seem to encapsulate so much about these last four years. And especially the past few weeks, as Trump has pushed baseless assertions and dangerous conspiracy theories to overturn a democratic election to retain power, while he has ignored the monstrous death toll of the surging pandemic he repeatedly downplayed and lied about. And today it's my turn to ask Mother Jones readers to [make a year-end donation, if you can, to support our fearless journalism that tells it like it is and help us reach our ambitious $350,000 goal](. This is the last email I'll write to you requesting your help during the Trump presidency—what a long and tough four years we've traveled together—and I want to make it a good one. Our fundraising team tells me we still have a considerable $210,000 gap left to hit our goal in the next 9 days. I know lots of folks are going through difficult times now, but if you're able to join our effort to preserve and advance independent journalism, please [pitch in](—whatever you can afford, $5 or $500. It all helps our team do the reporting you expect from us and finish the year strong—and prepare for what lies ahead. As the horrific year of 2020 slouches toward its conclusion—and the final days of the Trump presidency are running out—I am tempted to steal a line from author Joan Didion and shout, "Goodbye to all that." But I can't. We are not through with the tragedies of this year, and, unfortunately, they will carry into the coming 12 months and beyond. As I write you, we are experiencing a double betrayal of America—and we have to understand it if we're to change it. [There's Trump's corrupt and deadly denial of the coronavirus](—a horrendously botched response that has been supported and enabled by his Republican handmaids. Every day, a 9/11 is striking the nation, as the pandemic claims the lives of thousands of our loved ones, neighbors, and fellow citizens. And while this massacre is underway, Trump says and does nothing. As MoJo Deputy Editor Dave Gilson recently [chronicled](, in the six weeks after the election, Trump zapped out 729 tweets. Not a single one was about the rising and staggering COVID body count. Trump has taken no action to arrest the deadly surge sweeping our land. This is a profound and historic abandonment of responsibility. Are his fellow Republicans demanding he engage? Are the media running bold headlines about his lethal negligence? Tens of millions still support him. This is madness. Where's the outrage? That's not a rhetorical question. I recently [explored the issue]( and wrote about how Trump has engaged in so many outrages as a candidate and president—paying off a porn star, aiding and abetting a Russian attack on the United States, calling for his foes to be locked up, pressuring a foreign leader to investigate a political opponent, refusing to explain suspicious business and financial dealings, separating families, engaging in racist rhetoric, encouraging violence—that even his and his enabler's unfathomable irresponsibility and lethal negligence lose their shock value. So what has Trump been tweeting about instead? [His other betrayal: his attempt to overturn the results of a democratic election](. Narcissist that he is, Trump has focused only on his clownish but dangerous political coup, pushing conspiracy theories and disinformation to subvert American democracy in pursuit of his authoritarian aims. He has actually held meetings in the White House and discussed the option of imposing martial law. He wants to be the United States' first autocrat and has mounted a war on democracy. And again, much of the GOP has joined his assault on the republic. Worse, millions of Trump's devotees accept his propaganda and support his attack on the fundamental political values of the nation. The consequences of Trump's betrayals will not end the day Joe Biden is inaugurated as president. We will still be fighting the COVID surge Trump allowed to occur. And the political atmosphere will remain poisoned by his divisive demagoguery and effort to delegitimize the Biden presidency, which I wrote about in "[How the GOP Is Helping Trump's War on Democracy](." The problem is and always has been about more than just one man. Trump may be leaving—though he is considering running again in 2024—but the anti-democratic and corrupt forces he exacerbated and exploited will remain. What that means for us at Mother Jones is that even with Trump soon to be gone from the White House, there’s still a need for kickass journalism and common-sense political discourse. Political corruption will continue, just as I uncovered in recent pieces on how Sen. Kelly Loeffler's company facilitated a [mini-Enron scandal]( and [tried to profit off the pandemic](. And Trump and his minions' unprincipled attacks on democracy and government will rage on. It was his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who called for martial law so Trump could nullify the election results, which, [Kevin Drum points out](, barely made it to the front page of the Times. This is a guy Trump pardoned. It's all madness! And people like him will still be around and causing trouble after Biden takes office. Trumpism and all that it means—destroying norms; encouraging violence, bigotry, and extremism; spreading disinformation and conspiratorial swill; undermining democracy and government—isn't going away. We at Mother Jones realize that and we're not going to let up just because a certain person will be changing his address on January 20. It will take plenty of hard-hitting and independent journalism in the months ahead to keep these dangerous forces checked, as a new administration moves in and addresses the damage of the past four years. And it needs to be held accountable itself, as it tackles our nation's profound challenges. I hope you won't let up either. I know a lot of you are worn out right now, and you might be using the holidays to take a break from it all. But I hope we can count on you to keep fighting with as much vigor as you have these past years so truth and democracy prevail come January and afterward. Our team is pretty exhausted, too, but you have my promise that we’ll use [any support you can spare to keep charging as hard as Mother Jones has for four decades](. You and I know that independent reporting that examines how power really works is vital no matter who's in charge. I'm going to wrap this up. If you've read this far, you understand why I've intruded upon your holiday season. I'm a journalist, not a professional fundraiser, but I know this fundamental truth: We can only do the work we do because of [support from readers like you](. Put simply, folks like you—and generous contributions—allow us to pursue the kickass journalism that the moment demands. It's reporting that isn't hindered by the desires or demands of advertisers or well-heeled owners. It's free, fearless, and fierce. And, believe me, my fellow reporters and editors and I at Mother Jones are all incredibly grateful that, thanks to people like you, we can be this sort of journalist. So this is it—hard to believe, right?—my last fundraising request of the Trump presidency: [If you treasure Mother Jones' independent and no-holds-barred journalism, please join our team and help us close that $210,000 gap we have in these next 9 days with a year-end donation today](. It means a lot to me that you find our work valuable enough to have read this long email. Thank you. And, of course, I hope I've convinced you to send us some of your hard-earned dollars. We did consider taking [this Trumpish fundraising approach](. But unlike some people, we believe that appealing to fear, ignorance, and bias is not the way to advance our mission and our nation's well-being. I don't enjoy asking you for money while a pandemic and economic crisis rage on, but I do relish leveling with you. And here's the bottom line: We want to do great work, and we can with your help. No bull. No hype. Now let's say goodbye to 2020 and join together for 2021. Onward, [David Corn] David Corn Washington, DC Bureau Chief Mother Jones P.S. If you recently made a donation, thank you! And please accept our apologies for sending you this reminder—our systems take a little while to catch up. [Donate]( [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755