The News & Guts Digest: a Serving of the Day’s Top News Stories with a Little Side of Commentary
Republicans Are Preparing for a Post-Roe World
The GOP-controlled Arizona Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy…
…it is a near carbon copy of a Mississippi law being currently being considered by the Supreme Court…
…both bills – and others like them passed in red states across the country – inarguably violate reproductive rights enshrined in 1973’s Roe v. Wade and 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey…
…The GOP knows that, but they’re betting that a newly emboldened conservative majority on the Supreme Court will totally redefine the legal status of abortion…
…“A ruling [on the Mississippi law] is expected in June,” explained the Republican state senator behind the Arizona bill. “This measure makes Arizona ready to enforce that law if and when that decision is made.”
…Texas’ wickedly-crafted prohibition on abortions after just six weeks of pregnancy gets a lot of media attention, but the procedure is imperiled in dozens of states. The Guttmacher Institute is a great resource for staying abreast of all the developments…
Don’t Trust and Can’t Verify
The international community seems to be engaged in the most dangerous game of “will he, won’t he” of all time, as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to send mixed signals on his intention to invade Ukraine…
…This morning, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected Russia’s claim that it had begun to remove troops from its border with Ukraine. “On the contrary,” Blinken said “we continue to see forces, especially forces in the vanguard of any renewed aggression against Ukraine, continuing to be at the border, to mass at the border.”
…Blinken warned that Putin can “pull the trigger” at any time. That leaves Ukraine is a state of existential limbo, but the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has urged resilience. He declared Wednesday a “Day of National Unity.”
….“We are united by a desire to happily live in peace,” Zelenskyy told the Ukrainian people. “We can defend our home only if we stay united.”
…If the Russian ambassador to the European Union can be believed, Ukraine can rest easy for the day. “Wars in Europe rarely start on a Wednesday,” Vladimir Chizhov told a German newspaper…
…In a rare moment of bipartisanship, GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell praised President Biden’s Tuesday speech on the potential conflict: “He was right to candidly remind the Russian people that neither the US nor NATO nor Ukraine want a war” and “to emphasize that the world will not shrug or stand idly by if Vladimir Putin tries to invade his neighbor or redraw the map of Europe through deadly force.”
…By Wednesday night, The United States was accusing the Russians of lying. Instead of withdrawing troops, Washington said Putin had move an additional 7,000 into the theater.
Develop the Swamp
Ryan Zinke, Donald Trump’s pugnacious Secretary of the Interior, worked on a private development deal while he was in office, ordered staff to help with the effort, and then lied to a government watchdog about the whole affair…
…That’s all a violation of federal ethics rules, according to a new report from the Interior’s Inspector General, although it’s certainly consistent with the behavior of other Trump Cabinet officials, like Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue or Secretary of Health and Human Service Tom Price…
…We bet you can predict Zinke’s response; he called it a “political hit job.”
…Zinke is no stranger to scandal. He resigned his Interior post in 2018 amid swirling allegations of self-dealing and a suspicious deference to the oil industry…
…Despite that – or perhaps because of it – Zinke is the leading contender for an open Montana Congressional seat that he once held…
Remember to Sign the Guestbook
The Biden administration instructed the National Archives earlier this week to give the House’s 1/6 committee the White House visitor logs from Donald Trump’s waning days in office…
…In doing so, Biden rejected Trump’s executive privilege claim. “Constitutional protections of executive privilege should not be used to shield, from Congress or the public, information that reflects a clear and apparent effort to subvert the Constitution itself,” wrote White House counsel Dana Remus in a letter to the Archives…
…Remus told the Archives to pass along the logs within 15 days…
…The 1/6 committee hopes they’ll reveal who was with with Trump while the Capitol was being ransacked…
Also Churning This News Cycle
… “The head of an organization that’s battled Russian disinformation in Ukraine since President Vladimir Putin last sent troops into the country in 2014 tells CBS News the United States has finally learned to counter Russia’s unique brand of hybrid warfare,” reports the outlet.
… “Millions of Americans woke up Wednesday under weather alerts ahead of expected risks for flooding, heavy snow, dangerous ice, fire danger and high winds,” reports NBC News.
… “A judge in Florida on Wednesday agreed with a request from the family of comedian Bob Saget and temporarily prohibited the release of any photos, video or other records related to the investigation into his death, saying that doing so would cause them irreparable harm,” reports The Associated Press.
Let’s Hear It For The Ladies
“For the second time in seven months,” Axios writes “American women are ensuring that Team USA comes home with plenty of hardware.“
The outlet explains: “As of Tuesday night, women had won 13 of Team USA’s 17 medals in Beijing, with nine coming in women’s events and four coming in mixed events.”
…Editorial cartoon of the day comes from Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution