Trump Is Haunted by Abortion...
...He Should Be
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A.B. STODDARD: Trump is Haunted by Abortion—He Should Be
LAST WEEK DONALD TRUMP came to Capitol Hill to meet with congressional Republicans about the GOP’s policy agenda for next year when, they all confidently assume, Republicans will control the Congress and the presidency.
But instead of a discussion of tax rates, or the urgent need to pass new immigration restrictions, Republicans listened to Trump’s trademark “rambling” shtick—a performance one participant likened to “talking to your drunk uncle at the family reunion.”
Trump did make clear his one policy priority, however: Tucked in somewhere among lying about Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, speculating about Taylor Swift’s support for Biden, crapping on Milwaukee, and assailing “dirty, no-good bastards’’ at the Department of Justice came a stern message on abortion. Republicans should not avoid the subject as Democrats emphasize the issue, Trump warned. Republicans must support exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother. They need to “be smart.”
🎥 PODCASTS AND VIDEOS 🎧
Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller: Lauren Windsor and Ben Wittes: A Deep Rot
Across the Movie Aisle: Is 'Hit Man' a Deeper Romcom?
Just Between Us: is off this week.
The Dark Level: The Dark Level: Is Nothing Sacred?
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🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Tuesday! It’s a hot election day here in Virginia! Will Bob Good survive? Who will be Abigail Spanberger’s replacement? We will see in a few hours. My afternoon rabbit hole has been these (AI?) ads from perennial candidate Maria Martin. They’re #art.
🎵On the Jukebox🎵… ‘All My Love’ by Coldplay.
Cooling centers… Closed for Juneteenth? Doesn’t sound like a great idea.
Come hang with us. Come grow with us. Come win with us. Even if you’re already a subscriber, I do think our subscription appeals make for good reading. Andrew Egger’s is a treat.
Is the FirstEnergy scandal… catching up with Gov. Mike DeWine? (WEWS).
When a party shows you its #priorities… Believe them. House GOP lawmakers try to put brakes on DC speed cameras (WTOP). Odd priorities! I have worked in the downtown corridor for 12 years and never have gotten a ticket. As Dan Riffle observed last year: “Every instance of opposition to speed cameras boils down to ‘well I got a ticket and I don’t like it.’”
“Vile.” What Trump calls Biden’s student loan forgiveness. Even if you don’t think it’s a great policy, vile? If he keeps describing it in such extreme terms (he will!), it’s a free gift to the Biden campaign to sell the policy and focus on his vengeance tour… which now apparently includes underwater basket weaving majors from Sheboygan. (I kid, but Reed College does offer this occasionally as a class, not a major.)
And I thought I knew all the obscure history of my neighborhood… Thanks to an aside by a Redditor, I will now never unsee Virginia 234 when I watch the underrated movie Deep Impact. The traffic jam scene was filmed mere miles from my house. Here’s how they did it with no special effects (except for the killer meteorite and the mile high tsunami.)1
“The Sheep Have Run Away…” It sounds like a code phrase, but no, it’s British politics.
The unbearable heaviness of thinking… everything is good for Trump (Ben Terris, WaPo)
Trump has unveiled an agenda of his own... He just doesn’t mention it much. Meet ‘Agenda 47’. (Philip Bump, WaPo)
Biden announces new policy… shielding undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens from deportation (NBC). A good policy, no-brainer, and one that will generate instant conspiracies from the right, where the cruelty is the point.
Looks like some Russian bots…forgot to pay their bills! Whoopsie!
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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.
I never saw Deep Impact until I was in college. Armageddon was the all the rage. Controversial opinion: It is a fundamentally better movie, and not just because it is the more realistic of the two.
