Comment on White House and control of Congress on the ballot

Last month, Missourians voted to add the right to abortion until viability into their state constitution—making their state one of ten to enshrine abortion rights since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. But simply having the constitutional right to abortion does not alone change anything on the ground: The courts must enforce this right by affirming that anti-abortion laws violate states’ newly amended constitutions.

A Republican strategist is lashing out at Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) months after he says he fired her as a client, dubbing the far-right lawmaker a “pitiful embarrassment,” the Daily Beast reports. Said Wesley Donehue: “I fired Nancy Mace as client a few months back because I’m a political consultant and not a babysitter, a sex therapist or a doctor who can prescribe fixes for chemical imbalances.

“The 118th Congress ended almost exactly as it began: with chaos in the House of Representatives that threatened to consume its GOP leader and shut down the government,” the Washington Post reports. “While he avoided the ignominious event of a government shutdown, with just hours to spare, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) still faces a daunting vote at the start of the next Congress, on Jan.

“Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose two additional trips from a billionaire patron that had not previously come to light, Senate Democrats revealed on Saturday after conducting a 20-month investigation into ethics practices at the Supreme Court,” the New York Times reports.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said he voted against the stopgap spending bill in “protest” of how the government is run, CNN reports. Said Romney: “While I support keeping government open, I voted no on the CR—a simple protest of the absurd way this is to run government.”

Only Allah knows for sure, but there are indications that the claim that he’s an ex- and anti-Muslim is untrue.