I’ll give it to you straight—unlike many of the people I write about.

The impeachment is bogus. Trump is a stochastic terrorist.   [Mother Jones]( MoJo Reader, This is an important email, and I’m going to give it to you straight. The GOP’s impeachment inquiry [is bogus](, Donald Trump is a [stochastic terrorist](, and Mother Jones needs [a big haul of donations right now]( to produce the kickass journalism you get from us. We are far beyond business-as-usual. And I’m going to highlight two immensely consequential stories I’ve recently written—where most of the media is dropping the ball on—as I ask for your help. Yes, that means money. In fact, maybe you could [part with $78](, the cost of [a meal and bar tab]( for [a self-important and often wrong pundit]( at Newark airport, to support our journalism? We need a lot of help right now, because our hard-working business team says we still need to raise about $150,000 in [donations from readers like you]( over these next five-plus days. If this email does well—if I can convince a good many of you to jump aboard and [pitch in](—we might just get there. As the all-important 2024 elections approach and the Republican chaos-mongers in Congress try to undermine American democracy, economic security for many, and valuable government programs (such as climate action, Social Security, and so much more), we must stay on track this year. If the response today is ho-hum, it’s a huge concern. Thankfully, my main job is running a team of 16 reporters and editors in our Washington, DC, bureau, who every day are digging out corruption and wrongdoing and producing the journalism you rely on. It’s not my job to tend to our finances. But I’ve been working in journalism long enough to tell you that the challenges we face are tougher than I’ve ever seen, in our field and specifically at Mother Jones. I can also state the obvious: The need for truly independent, no-BS reporting like ours has never been greater in my decades-long career than it is right now, as authoritarianism, tribalism, and extremism threaten our nation. If you can, please consider [sending us a few of your hard-earned bucks to support our hard-nosed reporting](. After all, you certainly know who you can’t count on to give it to you straight? House Republicans and much of the mainstream, corporate media. Especially when it comes to the bogus impeachment proceedings. It’s hard to fathom how far from normal the evidence-free impeachment of Hunter…I mean Joe Biden truly is. My hunch is that unpacking it a bit should help make the case to [support our fact-based and fiery journalism today](. Many in the media have mostly been treating the GOP’s impeachment crusade as politics as usual. I had to turn to fiction to find an adequate parallel when writing about it recently in Our Land, my Mother Jones­–produced [personal newsletter](. Here’s an excerpt. “[Can the Media Meet the Challenge of the GOP’s Bogus Impeachment?](” “Sentence first—verdict afterwards.” So declared the Queen of Hearts during the trial of the Knave of Hearts (for allegedly stealing tarts) in Alice in Wonderland. This approach, which Lewis Carroll meant to symbolize the height of absurdism, seems an apt description of how the House Republicans are proceeding with an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden. As of now, there is no evidence that Biden did anything to warrant the political equivalent of a death sentence. In previous impeachments, the basic facts of the alleged wrongdoing were known. The Watergate break-in and Richard Nixon’s efforts to impede the investigation of the burglary and subsequent cover-up were matters of public record. In the cases of Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, the basics of their wrongdoing were confirmed prior to the House kick-starting impeachment. Whether these impeachments were justified or not, they were predicated on established misdeeds. Not so now. There’s no information indicating Biden took official actions to help Hunter or his colleagues. House Republicans have repeatedly been forced to acknowledge that evidence linking Biden to corruption has not yet been unearthed. On CNN a few weeks ago, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) was pressed on whether the Republicans had found direct evidence of Biden malfeasance. He replied, “The point of the [impeachment] inquiry is to give us greater standing to get the full evidence.” Moreover, Rep. Jim Comer (R-Ky.), the leader of the GOP impeachment inquiry, has [distorted and exaggerated]( the investigation’s findings, repeatedly hurling false allegations about President Biden. We’re going to have an impeachment inquiry to see if we can find evidence to justify an impeachment inquiry. This is sentence first—investigation afterwards. This is a bogus and trumped-up impeachment crusade. How does the media cover and contextualize a sham impeachment? The aim of the Republicans—if they cannot produce true evidence of Biden corruption—is to tarnish the president by linking his name to “impeachment” in as many headlines and news accounts as possible. Can the media report on these shenanigans without being an accomplice, without bolstering a bad-faith effort driven by far-right extremists and conspiracy-mongers, such as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz? Even though news accounts sometimes note that the Republicans have yet to produce evidence to justify impeachment, the overall coverage ends up boosting the Biden-is-corrupt innuendo being slung by the Republicans. There are [details a plenty]( in my full column about how the media have screwed up its coverage of this baseless GOP attack. By and large, it’s all politics, charge and countercharge. Rs and Ds depicted as operating on the same level. Certainly, this adheres to journalistic convention. But it affords impeachment scammers an advantage, amplifying their insinuation that Biden is corrupt. And after all these years of Trumpism, the media should know better! McCarthy and his House colleagues are exploiting impeachment to generate headlines and soundbites that create the impression that Biden is a crook—to give Fox and its wannabe competitors plenty of grist for their propaganda-churning mills and to help Donald Trump return to the White House [with an authoritarian agenda.]( That is the crux of the story here. Whether the rest of the media plays it that way will determine if the extremists—those who tried to overturn the last election, who downplayed or excused a violent attack on the Capitol, and who now support a demagogic presidential candidate who subverted the constitutional order—succeed. You know where Mother Jones stands. We exist as a [reader-supported]( nonprofit exactly for this reason: to call it like it is without fear, favor, or false equivalence. If you think it’s important to have a news outlet that doesn’t follow the pack, doesn’t pussyfoot, doesn’t answer to corporate bosses—and that reaches millions of readers—I hope you’ll [pitch in a few bucks right now](. And if you can’t donate today, please do me a favor: Pass along this email to family, friends, and frenemies. Let them know what many in the national media won’t say: This impeachment effort is a farce. “[Donald Trump, Stochastic Terrorist](” Mainstream media also won’t call Donald Trump a terrorist. But [in a way](, he is. If you’re not familiar with the term stochastic terrorism, now is a good time to bone up—and help spread the word about that, too. It’s a term defined by conflict and law enforcement experts as the demonization of a foe so that he, she, or they might become targets of violence. Scientific American recently [put it this way](: “Dehumanizing and vilifying a person or group of people can provoke what scholars and law enforcement officials call [stochastic terrorism](, in which ideologically driven hate speech increases the likelihood that people will violently and unpredictably attack the targets of vicious claims. At its core, stochastic terrorism exploits one of our strongest and most complicated emotions: disgust.” Trump is a master of this, indirectly inspiring others to do the dirty work, and he’s far from alone. Elon Musk, Rep. Paul Gosar, Ron DeSantis, I’ve got the terrifying receipts in the [full post](. And it’s worth studying up on, because with Trump under indictment in four cases—for a variety of allegations, including treasonous actions, stealing classified government documents, and making hush money payoffs to a porn star—and lashing out in response, threats of violence are increasing. How is the media handling this threat? Why wasn’t his social media post suggesting Army Gen. Mark Milley be executed major news for a week, provoking controversy and forcing every Republican to respond? The answer is clear: Trump’s extremism has become fully normalized. It’s Trump being Trump. When he endorses the nutty and dangerous QAnon conspiracy theory, when he says the Constitution should be suspended so he can be reinstated as president, when he dines with a white nationalist and a prominent antisemite—none of this prompts lasting national outrage that transcends the usual tribal partisan politics. And that enables him and his acolytes to keep right on going, when he’s treated as a politician, instead of a peril to democracy. We all should acknowledge the danger at hand. And believe me, we do at Mother Jones, and that’s why every day we bust our tails for you. It would mean a lot to me and everyone here if you can [pitch in and help us raise the $150,000 we need in these next five-plus days]( so we can do all we can to stand up for truth and democracy in the consequential 13 months ahead. I’ve said this before: I don't relish asking you for your hard-earned money. But here’s why I do so: [Support from readers]( is the only thing that allows MoJo to do journalism the way we do, and that, dear reader, is something I feel quite strongly about. I know many of you do, as well. And these days we should be doing more fierce journalism, not less. If we don’t bring in [significantly more donations](, we're going to be facing a much bigger gap—and that will affect how much chasing, investigating, and digging we can do. Mother Jones is one of the premier nonprofit journalistic outlets. We survive—and thrive—because readers like you value our work enough to [send us money](. When we need to go to the well, you’re it—not corporate advertisers or billionaire owners. We only have you and your fellow readers, and that’s why I sent you this long and earnest [request for support]( today. I appreciate that you took the time to hear me out. Thanks for being on our side. Onward, David Corn Washington, DC, Bureau Chief Mother Jones [Donate](   [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [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