Democrats teeter on the abortion tightrope

The Democrats are having a hard time keeping their story straight on abortion. Last week, former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki claimed on her MSNBC show (which should be called The Spin Zone) that “no one supports abortion up until birth,” only to then describe all of the scenarios in which she would support a late-term abortion. Vice President Kamala Harris similarly balked in a CBS interview Sunday with Margaret Brennan when asked if she would support any limits on abortion. Instead, she opted to reiterate several times that “we need to put back in place the protections of Roe v….

The Democrats are having a hard time keeping their story straight on abortion. Last week, former Biden press secretary Jen Psaki claimed on her MSNBC show (which should be called The Spin Zone) that “no one supports abortion up until birth,” only to then describe all of the scenarios in which she would support a late-term abortion. Vice President Kamala Harris similarly balked in a CBS interview Sunday with Margaret Brennan when asked if she would support any limits on abortion. Instead, she opted to reiterate several times that “we need to put back in place the protections of Roe v. Wade.”

The inability of Democrats to articulate what abortion limits they support is a feature, not a bug. Democrats in Congress voted against protecting babies who survive abortions and sought to ban states from enacting some of the most popular abortion restrictions. Ahead of the 2022 midterm cycle, Democrats were able to stave off massive defeat by lauding themselves as the defenders of women’s rights after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The GOP handed them the win by refusing to address abortion at all.

My forthcoming magazine feature on the statewide elections in Virginia this fall explores how, with the leadership of Governor Glenn Youngkin, the GOP is trying to take back control of the abortion narrative by championing a fifteen-week ban with exceptions for rape and incest. Sources within the national GOP party apparatus tell me that they, too, will be juxtaposing that reasonable compromise against more extreme positions and non-answers from Democrats like Vice President Harris.

–Amber Athey

On our radar

9/11 NEVER FORGET Today marks the twenty-second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. President Biden, on his way back from India and Vietnam, is marking the occasion at a ceremony on a military base in Alaska.

HOUSE PARTY The US House returns to session tomorrow, with hardline Republicans spoiling for a scrap over a potential Biden impeachment inquiry and, you guessed it, looming government shutdown.

RETURN OF THE MASK? Anthony Fauci, retired White House chief medical advisor, suggested on ABC’s This Week that “if we get a significant uptick in cases that you may see the recommendation that masks be used under certain circumstances in indoor crowded settings.” Fauci clarified that a federal mandate was unlikely.

The Gran van’s EV roadtrip from Hell

Spare a thought for Jennifer Granholm. The energy secretary invited the NPR car reporter (safe option) to ride along on a electric vehicle tour of the South to flag how much cash the Biden administration is pouring into EVs. It… didn’t go as planned.

“Her caravan of EVs — including a luxury Cadillac Lyriq, a hefty Ford F-150 and an affordable Bolt electric utility vehicle — was planning to fast-charge in Grovetown, a suburb of Augusta, Georgia,” Camila Domonoske writes. “Her advance team realized there weren’t going to be enough plugs to go around. One of the station’s four chargers was broken, and others were occupied. So an Energy Department staffer tried parking a nonelectric vehicle by one of those working chargers to reserve a spot for the approaching secretary of energy.

“That did not go down well: a regular gas-powered car blocking the only free spot for a charger?

“In fact, a family that was boxed out — on a sweltering day, with a baby in the vehicle — was so upset they decided to get the authorities involved: they called the police.

“The sheriff’s office couldn’t do anything. It’s not illegal for a non-EV to claim a charging spot in Georgia. Energy Department staff scrambled to smooth over the situation, including sending other vehicles to slower chargers, until both the frustrated family and the secretary had room to charge.”

Cockburn hastens to add that this isn’t Granholm’s first EV issue: she came under fire for pushing now-bankrupt EV company Proterra while in office, a company on whose board she sat. She also praised Ford’s EV efforts — blissfully unaware that her energy consultant husband owned stock in it at the time. Oops!

–Cockburn

And now, sports..

Five Republican candidates (Ron DeSantis, Doug Burgum, Asa Hutchinson, Vivek Ramaswamy and Donald Trump) headed to Ames for the big Iowa-Iowa State college football game Saturday, which the Hawkeyes won 20-13. Trump received a mixed reception: he got rave reviews at the agricultural frat house he visited and was mobbed while flipping burgers, but the most viral image of the weekend shows a Cyclones fan giving the former president the finger. A plane also flew by the stadium bearing the taunt “Where’s Melania?” — highlighting the fact that the former first lady has barely been seen in public throughout the campaign.

Vivek completed a sport-centric weekend by heading to Flushing Meadows with his wife Apoorva, where unvaccinated icon Novak Djokovic bested Danii Medvedev in the US Open men’s final. ESPN awarded their “shot of the day” to Novak’s match winner, a segment that was sponsored by… mRNA vaccine pioneer Moderna. Oops again!

–Matt McDonald