Trump's rhetoric has been worse than Kari Lake's twitter.com/TheBabylonBee/…

I’m thrilled and honestly a little surprised to note that School of War just broke one million total downloads, after almost exactly 2.5 years on the air. Thanks to all our listeners, guests, and the team at Nebulous. On to two million!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sch…

This misleading PPP/student loans talking point refuses to die. The loans were 100% intended to be turned into grants, it was baked into the policy from the start. The type of student loans under discussion were not designed the same way.

I think it can be simultaneously true that Republicans were ill prepared for Roe's reversal and are now overdoing it in their panicked response.

None of this is to say abortion didn't matter in 2022. It did.

But Democrats & their media allies and Trump & his media allies have a vested interest in overstating how much Dobbs was to blame for the GOP's 2022 underperformance—in which they still took back the House.

What about federal legislation?

In 2022, Ted Budd supported the 15-week abortion bill. He won the North Carolina Senate race by 3.2 points (Trump carried NC by 1.3 points in 2020).

Marco Rubio backed the 15-week bill too. He won Florida by 16.4 points.

Yes, there's evidence the Michigan referendum boosted Democratic turnout. thedispatch.com/newsletter/dis…

But then look at Ohio, where an abortion referendum passed 57-43 in 2023 but Ohio voters re-elected the Republican governor who signed a heartbeat act by 25 points in 2022.

What about the abortion referenda? Yes, the pro-lifers have been routed, but evidence of the effect downballot is mixed.

Kentucky’s “no constitutional right to abortion” referendum failed by 5 points; Rand Paul—sponsor of the Life at Conception Act—won by 24 points.

But the Senate GOP candidates who lost would've won if they'd only performed as well as pro-life House GOP candidates across each state.

Who is the abortion-minded voter who casts a ballot against a pro-life Senate GOPer but for a pro-life House GOPer?
twitter.com/McCormackJohn/…

The House generic ballot polling average was R+2.3 on the day of the Dobbs decision in June 2022. In November 2022, the result was R+2.8.

Could it have been R+4 or R+5 or R+6 without Dobbs? Entirely possible.

The 2024 presidential election would be over now if Republicans had nominated Nikki Haley, who said she'd sign a 15-week abortion limit into law if it made it to her desk (something she accurately pointed out would not happen because of the filibuster). twitter.com/EricKleefeld/s…

New Catholic World Report

Pro-lifers are used to Republican politicians stabbing us in the back. Donald Trump has stabbed us in the front.

It is not an improvement.

catholicworldreport.com/2024/04/10/pro…