Hello,

If you tuned into Fox ‘Entertainment’ News last night instead of any other channel, you would have seen an alternate universe.

You wouldn’t have heard anything about Republican congressmen begging Trump for pardons after January 6th.

Nothing about Sean Hannity, Ivanka Trump, or Bill Barr calling B.S. on the Big Lie.

Not how Trump’s supporters left Capitol Police officers slipping in each other’s blood.

And certainly not the chilling moment when Liz Cheney said that – aware that his supporters were chanting for VP Pence to be hanged – Donald Trump stated, “Maybe our supporters have the right idea. Mike Pence deserves it.”

What has our nation and our democracy come to that we got this close to losing it all?

After Trump was elected in 2016, I retired from the U.S. Navy after 36 years. I knew what kind of a man Trump was even then, and there was no way I was going to take orders from the likes of him. As a friend of mine said at the time, Trump’s call sign should have been “Demented.”

But we have right-wing propaganda networks that call themselves “news” spreading disinformation and preventing a large swath of the American public from ever hearing the truth. They are eroding our democracy before our very eyes.

Fox News is terrified of the truth. And they should be. Because the entire Republican Party will collapse when the American public sees what Donald Trump and his accomplices did on January 6th.

I won’t ever be afraid to speak the truth. I swore an oath to this country, and I will swear it again after I defeat my opponent Chuck Grassley this November and we turn Iowa blue. Grassley will be but one more casualty of Trumpism.

I just officially became the Democratic Senate nominee against Grassley, and I am already under attack from Mitch McConnell and all his dark money. If I’m going to be able to fight back and send Chuck Grassley packing, I need grassroots donors like you to give to my campaign now.

Our very democracy is at stake this November, but I don’t take a dime of corporate PAC money. So I have to ask: Please, will you chip in $5 or more right now – every dollar you can afford to spare – to help me defeat Chuck Grassley, turn Iowa blue, and protect our Democratic majority in the Senate?

I know that we can win if we are able to fight back against all of Fox News’ lies and propaganda. But I need your help now to do it.

Thank you so much,

Mike Franken, U.S. Navy (ret.)