November 13, 2019

The Impeachment Hearing Is About to Start. Trump Is Already Short-Circuiting.

A historic morning indeed!

Douglas Christian/ZUMA

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As the first day of televised impeachment hearings prepare to go live, let’s pause to take the temperature inside the White House, where President Donald Trump appears to be short-circuiting: 

After kicking off the morning with those nods to Fox News, Trump then opted to keep things short, sticking closely to his catchphrase defenses against the biggest threat to his presidency.

To translate: the “READ THE TRANSCRIPT” demand, as we previously explained, has served as Trump’s go-to rejoinder to the investigation; “NEVER TRUMPERS” is his attempt to falsely paint the witnesses in the impeachment inquiry as politically biased.

All that followed a late night of retweeting and quoting in advance of what’s all but certain to be a historic day, as House Democrats attempt to convince the country that Trump abused his power to coerce foreign intervention in the 2020 election. The president appears to have left his morning wide open for the opening remarks, so prepare yourself for some more meltdowns.

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It’s risky, but also unavoidable: A full one-third of the dollars that we need to pay for the journalism you rely on has to get raised in December. A good December means our newsroom is fully staffed, well-resourced, and on the beat. A bad one portends budget trouble and hard choices.

The December 31 deadline is drawing nearer, and if we’re going to have any chance of making our goal, we need those of you who’ve never pitched in before to join the ranks of MoJo donors.

We simply can’t afford to come up short. There is no cushion in our razor-thin budget—no backup, no alternative sources of revenue to balance our books. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the fierce journalism we do. That’s why we need you to show up for us right now.

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