As I pursued stories for this book, I was surprised by the bizarre episodes that I dug up. An FBI director receiving a big payment from a Kremlin-connected propagandist. A fugitive ex-Florida cop who fled to Moscow running disinformation operations that misled millions of Americans. Rudy Giuliani colluding with a Russian agent. Trump and his GOP allies spouting falsehoods and Deep State conspiracy theories cooked up and spread by Putin’s own spies and undercover trolls.
Putin’s furtive campaign against the United States has been far more extensive than I realized. It has even included an effort to insert Russian propaganda into AI chatbots widely used in America. With How Russia Won, I’m trying to reclaim the Trump-Russia narrative, which has been hijacked by Trump and his toadies to pitch the paranoid MAGA fantasy that Trump is the victim of a vast Deep State plot.
Reclaiming the narrative: It’s central to our whole mission here at Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting. Our reporters are holding the powerful to account by shining a light in the dark corners of political corruption, covert operations, and plutocratic malfeasance. That means pursuing government officials, political scoundrels, boardroom plunderers, and MAGA leaders and influencers who are screwing the American public for their own benefit—chasing those stories that candidates, lobbyists, corporations, and right-wing extremists would prefer go uncovered.
My team—reporters and editors in DC, New York, San Francisco, and across the country—know we’re only able to get this work done because of the support of our readers. As in…people like you. We’re able to investigate what other media outlets miss or neglect—and provide the public with the kickass reporting the nation most needs in this time of crisis—because we don’t have to answer to a billionaire owner or a corporation dictating what we can and can’t do. We remain independent and fierce, thanks to readers like you.
We need your support. So I have to make this pitch again: The first 50 people who make a gift of $100 or more today will receive a copy of my new book as a thank you.
You know I don’t love nagging you for a donation. I just want to get the truth out there. And we can only do that with assistance from readers who give a damn. So—once more (I know, I know)— please help us out. And if you give $100 (or more), our hardworking fundraising team will mail a copy of my book to you to say thanks.
