Ambitious Disinformation

In all the commotion, Jimmy Kimmel's actual words in his remark in his monologue on September 15 seems to have been forgotten. He said

We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.

Therefore- no, despite this-a former press secretary to the undisputed most dishonest and corrupt (dishonest the operative term here) president in American history had this to say about the talk show host's comment:

To be clear, you are applauding the return of a guy who made false and defamatory statements about the assassination of a political leaders and has yet to even attempt to publicly clean up/apologize

disgusting and pathetic https://t.co/CmIAZgnuY5

— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) September 23, 2025

Kimmel made one false statement: the murderer of Charlie Kirk, whatever he is and whatever motivated him, appears not to have been a MAGAit.   However, the comedian in the same sentence maintained that "the MAGA gang" was "doing everything they can to score political points from it." Moreover, no one has been defamed, which any first semester, first year law student understands.

Tweet after tweet from self-admitted "MAGA" on Elon Musk's X represents an effort to score political points from the assassination.

But that's not all. The vast majority of these individuals (this one of thousands of examples) is (are?) not well known except by the people who read these tweets. However, this person is quite well-known and, aside from her ambivalent view of abortion rights, is extremely, loyally, "MAGA":

 

Nancy Mace's very first words to reporters on Charlie Kirk was "democrats own what happened today"

When @ryanobles followed up about if that means Republicans "own" the shooting of Minnesota lawmakers she says "are you kidding me?"

From moments ago on the House steps pic.twitter.com/H6RXJITtTv

— Leah V. (@LeahVredenbregt) September 10, 2025

That is what we, or any sentient human being, would call "trying to score political points from" a murder. So, too, was White House Advisor Stephen Miller trying to score political points when at the rally for- uh, er, memorial to- Kirk, he bellowed (also stated on X)  (emphasis mine)

.... With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and throughout the government to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and destroy these (radical left) networks and make America safe again for the American people. It will happen, and we will do it in Charlie's name.

Previously, Miller had claimed there was an "organized campaign that led to this assassination," either a lie or evidence of ignorance beyond imagination.  

On September 15, hosting Kirk's podcast a few days after the murder (no trying to score political points there!), Vice President James David Vance had stated

And importantly, we have to talk about this incredibly destructive movement of left-wing extremism that has grown up over the last few years and, I believe, is part of the reason why Charlie was killed by an assassin's bullet.

That same day, President Trump, the self-proclaimed "King of America" who has called the USA "evil," remarked ".... the radical left really is- causes a lot problems for this country. I really think they hate our country."  In his very first statement after the crime, Donald spoke from the Oval Office and blamed the radical left for the killing of Kirk, contending "this rhetoric is directly responsible for the kind of terrorism that we're seeing in this country today."

"And it must stop," the President added, explaining that the Administration will be pursuing "the organizations that funded and supported" a whole raft of high-profile incidents he blamed on the left.

That sort of thing should be an inspiration to Jimmy Kimmel as his show resumes on ABC (minus stations owned by Sinclair and Nexstar) tonight, Tuesday, September 23, 2025. As he realizes, Kimmel is only one, albeit one of the best-known,, of Trump's targets. The goal is to shut off all debate and criticism of the King, who recently whined "They're 97 percent against. They give me only bad press... I would think maybe their license should be taken away."  Donald's favorite FCC commissioner, chairman Brendan Carr, threatens "we can do this the easy way or the hard way." He knows his brave boss doesn't want his own fingerprints on the murder weapon.

 

Tonight, Kimmel should promptly omit error on one of his claim, MAGA inspiration for the murderer. Then, he should explain to the American people how the memory of Charlie Kirk is being exploited. President Trump's dreams and schemes, the President's objectives and the stakes involved, ought to be explained in the simple manner which professional entertainers excel at.  Unless he clearly and completely backtracks- very unlikely- Kimmel will be criticized by the crowd Donald manipulates and exploits. Thus, he may as well gamble on the public's interest in truth.

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Projecting Strength Which Isn't There

Ironically, in a podcast episode posted to criticize Representative Nancy Mace (R-South Carolina) and President Donald Trump, Steve Schmidt illustrated the political brilliance of Donald Trump. At 3:59 of the video below, Trump at the presidential debate with Kamala Harris can be seen bragging

You need Trump back as resident. They were afraid of him. China was afraid. I don't like to use the word "afraid" but I'm just quoting him. China was afraid of him. North Korea was afraid of him Look at what's going on with North Korea, by the way. He said Russia was afraid of him.

If you're wondering who "he" is, the context of this quote makes it clear. Vice President Harris had noted, in part, "world leaders are laughing at Donald Trump. I have talked with military leaders, some of whom worked with you." And they say you're a disgrace.

Aside from the last five sentences (not pertinent here), Trump responded

Let me just tell you about world leaders. Viktor Orban, one of the most respected men -- they call him a strong man. He's a tough person. Smart. Prime Minister of Hungary. They said why is the whole world blowing up? Three years ago it wasn't. Why is it blowing up? He said because you need Trump back as president. They were afraid of him. China was afraid. And I don't like to use the word afraid but I'm just quoting him. China was afraid of him. North Korea was afraid of him. Look at what's going on with North Korea, by the way. He said Russia was afraid of him. I ended the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and Biden put it back on day one but he ended the XL pipeline. The XL pipeline in our country. He ended that. But he let the Russians build a pipeline going all over Europe and heading into Germany. The biggest pipeline in the world. Look, Viktor Orban said it. He said the most respected, most feared person is Donald Trump. We had no problems when Trump was president.

A mere fifty-one weeks later and less than eight months into the presidency, we find Donald Trump decisively refuting his campaign claim that China, North Korea, and maybe Russia were afraid of him. Of course, no one has pointed it out and if media or politicians did so, they'd be accused of fake new (or worse), especially because this undermines one of the major pillars of his support. This week

President Donald Trump took to his social media platform as Chinese President Xi Jinping, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared together in Beijing for China's largest-ever military parade on Wednesday.

Trump accused Xi of "conspiring against" the United States as they attended the parade, which marked the 80th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.

"May President Xi and the wonderful people of China have a great and lasting day of celebration. Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America," Trump wrote on social media as the parade was underway.

Who is afraid of who (whom) now?  Russia, Mainland China, and Korea are assembling in the open. They're not hiding from Donald Trump. If they fear Donald Trump, it's only persuading them to forge an alliance.

The loser is not Donald J. Trump. The loser is the United States of America, Europe, and our allies in Asia. But it doesn't hurt Trump because his image, as the bully on the block, is intact and no one- aside from the three aforementioned nations- is challenging it.

Far from it.  Mace, who has repeatedly claimed to be a victim of rape and is running for the GOP nomination for South Carolina governor, took to X before the Capitol Hill news conference held by United States Representatives Massie and Khanna with victims of Jeffrey Epstein:

Since it’s already being reported - Yes I left the Oversight briefing with Epstein victims early.

As a recent survivor (not 2 years in), I had a very difficult time listening to their stories. Full blown panic attack. Sweating. Hyperventilating. Shaking. I can’t breathe.

I…

— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) September 2, 2025

Mace then signed the Massie-Khanna discharge petition calling on the House of Representatives to release the full Epstein files. However, Mace is saying whatever she can to get the President's endorsement for her candidacy for governor of South Carolina  So in the wake of the Massie/Khanna news conference, Mace tweeted (emphasis hers)

President Trump is the one who banned Jeffrey Epstein from Mar-a-Lago. President Trump is the one who cooperated with the feds to get this guy. President Trump is the one who is COMMITTED to protecting women and kids.

President Trump is the one committed to protecting women and kids. There is nothing this President would rather hear than that he is protecting women because that is one big hunk of an alpha male does- protect women. Not ensure their rights, secure their prosperity, nor enact good policy. He counts on them being afraid, just as he claimed during the presidential campaign that Russia, Mainland China, and North Korea are all afraid of him. Kellyanne Conway calls it swagger.

BREAKING: Kellyanne Conway praises Trump’s “swagger” and his renovations to the Rose Garden which removed all the green space. The sycophancy of these people is off the charts. pic.twitter.com/hzW88OABl3

— Trump Lie Tracker (Commentary) (@MAGALieTracker) August 20, 2025

It now appears to be costing us a great deal internationally as the President poses as almost the reverse of what he actually is.  The President wrote that the three nations are "conspiring against" the USA because he consistently tries to portray himself as the victim

It's the Trump paradox (one of them). The guy who whines and cries, cries and whines postures as the strongman. Notwithstanding the disinterest of the Democrat Party in trying to undermine this image, it is still one of the wonders of the 21st century that Donald Trump is able to get away with it. And he's doing so even as he has successfully driven enemies, two of them economically and militarily powerful, of the USA into an apparent alliance with each other.

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Pitiful Little Marco

Pathetic, just pathetic.

It was on March 3, 2016 in Detroit when

Donald Trump opened the GOP debate here by boasting about the size of his genitals. He responded to recent comments from Marco Rubio in which the Florida senator joked about the size of Trump’s hands and said “you know what they say about men with small hands.”

On the debate stage, Trump stretched his hands out for the audience to see – then insisted the suggestion that “something else must be small” was false.

“I guarantee you there’s no problem,” Trump said to howls from the audience at the Fox debate.

Trump twice taunted his rival with "Don't worry about it, Little Marco." No problem, though, because Rubio got back at actor Trump later in the debate. He knew how to ridicule Trump and cut him down to size. The senator called him "Big Donald." Way to cut him down to size, Marco!

                

But that was before Rubio endorsed Trump a few months later, prior to his rapid and radical "transformation from "Never Trump' to 'Forever Trump.'" And now the little man has hit a new low:

Marco Rubio on Jon Karl being stunned when Rubio said he wants to be Trump's VP: "At the end of the day, I think the view is that the president doesn't even deserve to have a vice president." pic.twitter.com/X7B4vZBB3f

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 25, 2024

Oh, the humiliation. Rubio does have the advantage of being Latino and Trump hopes to be able to expand the inroads which polls indicate he has made with that demographic. However, he also is Cuban-America, and that brings into question his ability to appeal to Puerto Ricans in New York or more importantly, Mexican-Americans in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and North Carolina. Presumably, Rubio would help marginally in Florida but that has become a reasonably safe state for a GOP presidential nominee. 

Moreover, Article II, Section 1 of the USA Constitution reads "The electors hall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves." 

That would raise the possibility of four years of President Donald Trump and Vice-President Kamala Harris. Yet as entertaining as that would be, it wouldn't play out that way. Although a resident of Texas upon election as V.P. in 2000, Dick Cheney claimed to live in Wyoming, where he had previously resided and served as a U.S. Senator. And that was that. In the analogous situation, Trump simply would insist that he resides in New York, New York and that would be that.

Nonetheless, the nominee is about as likely to peg Rubio as his running mate as he is, say, Elizabeth Warren. Donald Trump needs a woman to round out the ticket, and there are several, such as Kristi Noem and Elise Stefanik, who would promise whatever necessary to do as requested. Then there are Nancy Mace, who might not, and Nikki Haley, who wouldn't, but would credibly remind everyone that a vote for Joe Biden as President is a vote for President Kamala Harris.

The ads touting Biden-Harris or ridiculing Trump-Rubio would practically write themselves- better yet, the V.P. nominee could write the ads. About a week before the "Little Marco" debate, Rubio had asserted "We cannot allow the conservative movement to be taken over by a con artist because the stakes are too high. Friends do not let friends vote for con artists," asserted the Florida senator about a week before he was dubbed "Little Marco." "Even Marco Rubio endorses Biden-Harris" would have a nice ring to it.

It's very unlikely that Trump would tap- uh, er, choose-  Nikki Haley because he'd have to worry every time he turned his back on her. However, she, Mace, Noem, and Stefanik are only a few of the Republican women who would jump at the chance to be on the ticket, and would alleviate slightly the (accurate) image of Trump as a narrow-minded, misogynistic bigot.

They'd all be very bad in their own way. However, no matter what the lucky lady is expected to do as running mate, it will be hard for her to define pathetic as thoroughly as has Marco Rubio.

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Elevated Sense of Self-Regard

As The Hill reports, U.S. Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina has

accused ABC’s George Stephanopoulos of trying to “bully” her during an interview Sunday morning when he pressed her on why she endorsed former President Trump.

“George Stephanopoulos tried to bully me and shame me as a rape survivor over my support for Donald Trump, which is insane to me, because he wasn’t found guilty of rape anywhere,” she said on Fox News’s “The Faulkner Focus.”

But the other thing is that, George Stephanopoulos, he doesn’t — he has never felt the shame of rape. He does not know what this journey is like. It’s a journey of healing over a lifetime,” she added.

Mace and Stephanopoulos got caught in a heated debate during ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday when he asked her how she could endorse Trump after he was found liable for sexual battery in a defamation lawsuit with E. Jean Carroll last year. He had played a clip of her delivering testimony about being a victim of rape shortly before she announced her bid for Congress in 2019.

Throughout the exchange on Sunday, Mace criticized Stephanopoulos for “shaming” her by asking why she supported Trump.

“And it’s a shame that you will never feel, George, and I’m not going to sit here on your show and be asked a question meant to shame me about another potential rape victim. I’m not going to do that,” Mace said.

Stephanopoulos maintained that his question was not meant to “shame” her and at one point called her “courageous” for coming forward. He still continued to press her on how she could endorse Trump after saying he should never hold office again after the Capitol attack on Jan. 6,  2021, and given that he had been found liable for sexual battery.

Mace said in her interview Monday that she was “shocked and dismayed by the line of questioning.” She also said that she was not aware he was going to bring up her testimony during the interview.

Oh, good Lord.  Since revealing in a debate over an abortion bill in the South Carolina legislature in 2019 that she had been raped twenty five years earlier at age 16, Mace has tried to make the violent the heart of her political identity.

Though she successfully argued for including an exception for rape and incest in the bill curbing women's reproductive freedom, Mace has since opposed a right to abortion. She also has endorsed the nomination of Donald Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, even though Trump denounced her run for the House of Representatives in 2022 while Nikki Haley promoted it.

So much for loyalty.  Stephanopoulos asked Mace "Judges in two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming a victim of that rape. How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony we just saw?"

The judges concluded that Trump was not responsible for rape, which under New York State law requires penile penetration. However, they found that the New York businessman had committed sexual assault in what is commonly considered rape. So, there is that.

Nevertheless, Donald Trump is the guy who is on tape admitting that he sexually assaults women and Stephanopoulos would have been committing journalistic malpractice had he not asked Mace about her unqualified support for a guy who has bragged about doing what he wants, when he wants, with whatever woman he wants.

Instead of defending Trump as the Republican more likely to defeat the devilish Joe Biden nor as a candidate who promotes conservative values or causes, Mace turned on Stephanopoulos, who questioned her relentlessly while remarking "you've talked courageously about that" (being raped).

Nonetheless, the congresswoman persisted in dishonestly condemning Stephanopoulos, completely without cause, trying to gin up resentment against him.. Last November, as Republicans were flopping around trying to elect a Speaker of the House, Representative Dusty Johnson, a Republican from South Dakota, outed Nancy Mace as a self-absorbed narcissist. 

This is one of Nancy Mace’s own colleagues in the House Republican Conference.

Our two political parties don’t often see eye to eye.

But when it comes to Mace, everyone agrees: She’s one of the most self-serving, unserious members of Congress.pic.twitter.com/d8i9raDeNe

— Michael B. Moore (@michael_b_moore) March 12, 2024

 

"This is a time," Johnson asserted, when we need people who are interested in problem-solving, not self-aggrandizement. At about the same time, The New Republic (not behind a paywall) noted that The Daily Beast (possibly behind a paywall)

examined the South Carolina representative’s staff handbook and interviewed several of her former staffers. The main message was clear: All eyes should be on Mace at all times.

“Are we in a P.R. firm, or working for a member of Congress?” a former senior aide said they repeatedly asked themselves while working for Mace.

The handbook, which Mace reportedly wrote herself, includes clear instructions for making sure the congresswoman gets the most attention possible.

Staffers are also expected to book Mace at least 15 television appearances per week: a minimum of nine spots on national channels (between one and three times a day) and six or more times on local outlets. And to get on television, she’ll pull stunts—like strip the House speaker of his gavel.

Former staffers criticized Mace’s decision to vote to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Mace later used her vote to cast herself as a maverick, fundraising aggressively off the move.

But according to a former senior aide, she didn’t actually care all that much. “She saw the votes on the board and said, ‘Fuck it, I’m just gonna vote for it just so I can go on TV and talk about it.’”

Mace also has other staff metrics with the hope of getting her on television. Staff are required to send out at least one press release per day, an unusually high rate....

The Daily Beast reviewed other internal documents from Mace’s office, including her office budget. She has dedicated more than a third of her office’s annual $500,000 budget for “marketing,” a word almost unseen on Capitol Hill.

“It is not normal for a member to prioritize media and comms over actual legislation like that,” a second former Mace staffer told The Daily Beast. “In my experience with and in other offices, comms serves to promote what the member is doing legislatively. In Mace’s office, legislation served to get her more media opportunities.”

So this is United States Representative Nancy Mace. George Stephanopoulos was not not blaming the rape on her, not questioning her decision to go public about the incident, nor in any way to shame her. If he had been, it wouldn't have been successful, anyway, for Nancy Mace is shameless.  Nancy Mace is no whore, but she is an attention whore.

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GOP Con Job Continues

Nancy Mace was first elected to the House of Representatives in November, 2020. Two months later, she voted against the impeachment of Donald Trump for his role in the attempted coup of January 6, 2021. Now: 

“Look, if a former president can be investigated, so too can a current president.”

— Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) claims there are “potential multiple smoking guns” in the investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. pic.twitter.com/o4YmEgFOU1

— The Recount (@therecount) May 9, 2023

When during July, 2019 he testified before Congress

former special counsel Robert Mueller noted that part of his decision to refrain from considering an indictment of President Donald Trump was attributed to a long-standing Justice Department policy: According to the agency’s Office of Legal Counsel, a sitting president cannot be charged with a federal crime.

“We, at the outset, determined that, when it came to the president’s culpability, we needed to go forward only after taking into account the OLC opinion that indicated that a sitting president cannot be indicted,” he said.

The OLC policy itself is relatively straightforward: Most recently reevaluated in 2000, it argues that the executive branch would be incapacitated by a criminal prosecution:

The indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions.

That was, and remains, in terms Joe Biden would understand, malarkey. There was no constitutional or statutory impediment to prosecuting a sitting President for a criminal offense. Mueller chose not to state explicitly that President Trump had appeared to have committed a crime because he was a Marine who didn't want to create additional controversy.  However, he did state that the President could be charged with obstruction of justice once he left the office. 

Moreover, as The Hill reported at the time, "hundreds of former federal prosecutors and DOJ officials have signed on to a letter saying that they believe Trump would have been charged with a crime were it not for the guidance" of a policy memorandum from the Department of Justice."  (It shouldn't have stopped prosecution, but it did.)

This is not a hard-and-fast rule. Nevertheless, it was one which a Justice Department in a Democratic Administration followed when it investigated a Republican president. Nonetheless, Nancy Mace wants us to believe that the reason Donald Trump wasn't charged was not because he was a sitting President but because there was little reason to believe he had committed a crime. The Biden Justice Department gave President Trump a break, and now a fairly prominent Republican is trying to gaslight the public in return.

Today, someone who was fine with an American citizen trying to overthrow the federal government is telling the DOJ "to get off their ass.

“The DOG — DOJ — needs to get off its ass … If these allegations — any of these allegations — are proven true, then someone with the last name Biden needs to be charged, prosecuted, and maybe spend a little time in prison.”

— Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) on Biden family probe pic.twitter.com/s2oDt0eXpr

— The Recount (@therecount) May 10, 2023

Representative Mace wants Joe Biden undermined and Donald Trump, the probable 2024 GOP presidential nominee, elected President/ She is never lumped in with bomb-throwing colleagues such as Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, or Paul Gosar. She is among those Republicans considered by the center-left media to be a "moderate" and "normal," demonstrating once again that such an animal is now virtually extinct.

 

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Then and Still, Abortion

Lindsay Graham made a telling claim about abortion rights to Dana Bash on Sunday's "State of the Union" on CNN.

Pursuant to the Hyde Amendment, no federal funds can be used for abortion unless the pregnancy occurs because of rape or incest or endangers the woman's life. Thus, there is something impressively slick- and tactically significant- about "abortion up to the moment of birth, taxpayer-funded." On Sunday's State of the Union on CNN, Dana Bash interviewed South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham and this exchange about abortion transpired:

BASH: Senator, I have heard you say both on this issue, that it is a state issue, but now you do support a federal ban. So who's right here?

GRAHAM: Right.

Well, I have been supporting a limit on late-term abortions for -- since 2015. I had a bill to limit abortions at 20 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother. Seventy percent of Americans support limiting abortion when the -- when the unborn child can feel pain; 50 of 53 European nations limit abortion at 15 weeks or less.

BASH: But my question is, is it a federal issue or a state...

GRAHAM: The modern Democrat -- yes, it's a human rights issue. Does it really matter where you're conceived?

At 15 weeks, you have a developed heart and lungs. And to dismember a child at 15 weeks is a painful experience. It's barbaric. It's out of line with the rest of the civilized world. Only North Korea and China allow abortion demand up to the moment of birth, except the Democratic Party.

Of course, there is no "abortion on demand." No one can walk into the office of a doctor, even one who performs abortions, and "demand" an abortion. It's not only a brazenly dishonest claim, but one which trivializes both the heightened stress of asking for termination of pregnancy and the risk undertaken by the medical professional in performing the procedure.

Aside for that, the Democratic bill, which passed the House of Representatives on July 15, 2022, only indirectly addresses the issue of when termination of pregnancy would be permitted.  The Poynter Institute's Politifact analyzed the veracity of the remark of U.S. Representative Marianette Miller-Meeks, two days after passage in her chamber of  the Women's Health Protection Act of 2022, "I also spoke this week against the radical left’s abortion bill that would permit abortion up until delivery." It noted  

Miller-Meeks’ newsletter comment has a point that the bill "would permit abortion up until delivery." However, she glosses over a crucial qualifier: The bill would allow such abortions only under extreme circumstances, in which medical professionals determine that the mother’s life or health is at risk.

It’s worth noting that late-term abortions — the kind that would need to be approved under these circumstances — are rare. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in its latest count from November 2021 that of the 629,898 abortions performed in 2019, almost 93% of them were at or before 13 weeks of pregnancy. About 6% were performed between 14 and 20 weeks, and less than 1% were performed at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy.

The figures are based on reports by health agencies throughout the U.S., although California, Maryland and New Hampshire did not report.

So under the Democratic bill which died, women would have been allowed to terminate their pregnancy up to the time of birth- but only if their physician determined that continuation of pregnancy would have jeopardized her life or health. And such late term abortions constitute far fewer than 1% of all abortions.  Federal funds could be used only if the woman's life is threatened.

Personally, I would have preferred a bill focused on reproductive health of women without language satisfying the id of LGBTQIA and anti-racist advocates:

The terms “woman” and “women” are used in this bill to reflect the identity of the majority of people targeted and affected by restrictions on abortion services, and to address squarely the targeted restrictions on abortion, which are rooted in misogyny. However, access to abortion services is critical to the health of every person capable of becoming pregnant. This Act is intended to protect all people with the capacity for pregnancy—cisgender women, transgender men, non-binary individuals, those who identify with a different gender, and others—who are unjustly harmed by restrictions on abortion services...

Reproductive justice seeks to address restrictions on reproductive health, including abortion, that perpetuate systems of oppression, lack of bodily autonomy, white supremacy, and anti-Black racism. This violent legacy has manifested in policies including enslavement, rape, and experimentation on Black women; forced sterilizations; medical experimentation on low-income women’s reproductive systems; and the forcible removal of Indigenous children. Access to equitable reproductive health care, including abortion services, has always been deficient in the United States for Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) and their families.

It's striking that the Republicans evidently lack a political strategist who would tell them how to target references to "people with the capacity for pregnancy- cisgender women, transgender men, non-binary individuals" and "enslavement, rape, and experimentation on Black women," language which could not have been more off-putting if it were specifically phrased to alienate voters. Nonetheless, this was ignored by the GOP.

Thus, on Monday morning, in an interview unrelated to the 2022 bill, South Carolina's Nancy Mace told CNN's Kaitlan Collins that Democrats support abortion up to the moment of birth. Most voters, if they were made aware of the language of the proposal, would have recoiled at this wokiest of woke depiction of American society and indictment of Americans themselves. Instead, Republicans reinforce their image as the anti-choice party in a country now decidedly pro-choice.

It is telling that Mace, whose views of reproductive rights are the most moderate of nearly any GOP member of Congress, would repeat the grossly misleading claim that Democrats are fine with abortion as the baby comes through the birth canal. Lindsay Graham did the same 24 hours earlier.  Meanwhile, Ron DeSantis chooses a different emphasis, brags that "Florida is where woke goes to die," and his prospects of becoming the party's 2024 presidential nominee plunge.  It's a testament to the power of the evangelical base of the Republican Party that GOP politicians, offered a tempting political target, instead distort Democratic views of abortion whenever and wherever they can.

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A Different Story in Europe

In the Real Time "Overtime" segment on January 20, Bill Maher was joined by author and blogger Andrew Sullivan, former Attorney General Bill Barr, and US Representative Nancy Mace, Republican from South Carolina. Mace made an interesting remark, at the 13:04 mark of the discussion but in fairness to her and the need for context, I began at 11:46 when the congresswoman remarked

You know, when Roe vs. Wade was overturned, we just turned our backs on women across the country and that's an issue. I was raped at the age of 16 and something I've been very passionate about. I'm pro-life but I also see that we got to find middle ground and with Americans about 89% of people are in the middle and we've got to protect women's rights and the right to life and there's a way to work together on many of these issues.

It's difficult to determine how Mace got the notion that nearly 9 of 10 Americans are "in the middle" on abortion rights. Soon after the Supreme Court overturned Roe, Forbes noted that an Ipsos poll in May 2021 found "66/% of Americans believe abortion should be permitted in at least some circumstances." Assuming the poll's accuracy, nearly 34% of individuals opposes abortion in all circumstances, and at least a few of that 66% no doubt supports a right to the procedure in any circumstance. Clearly, something over a third of Americans is nowhere near the middle on abortion. Mace continued 

Cannabis is one other issue. I have a bill called the States Reform Act on that and uh, takes, takes that issue and makes it one way that's bipartisan that Republicans and Democrats can get on. Republicans have been on the wrong side of cannabis. We've been on the wrong side of Roe vs. Wade. We- on birth control and gay marriage and all these issues that are important. Environmental issues.

I can't argue with the congresswoman on the GOP being on the wrong side of Roe vs. Wade. However, when Maher asked her what she would support regarding abortion, Mace responded

Well, I think gestational limits should be part of that conversation. In Europe, if you're even allowed to have one, it's twelve to fifteen weeks on average. That would be where you would....

That simplifies and misrepresents the state of the law and the practical reality of abortion in Europe.  In an opinion piece in The Washington Post in September, Leah Hoctor explained

Apart from the very few European nations that retain highly restrictive laws on abortion — Andorra, Lichtenstein, Malta, Monaco and Poland — no other European country “bans” abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Instead, almost all European countries allow abortion throughout pregnancy on a range of grounds, including where there are risks to a patient’s physical or mental health, and in situations involving severe or fatal fetal impairment.

Elective abortion is only one of the grounds on which abortion is legal in most of Europe, and time limits for this differ per country. When these time limits end, abortion almost always remains legal for a much longer period on other grounds, such as broadly framed socioeconomic or health grounds, or grounds of severe or fatal fetal impairment.

In support of calls for a 15-week ban on abortion — with carve-outs merely for highly restrictive exceptions, extending only to situations of physical risk to a patient’s life and pregnancy resulting from rape or incest — U.S. lawmakers referred to six European countries in particular (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway and Spain) and falsely stated that such a ban in the United States would be similar to policies in these nations.

Although these countries set a first-trimester time frame for elective abortion, they all allow abortion thereafter on other grounds. For example, laws in Denmark and Norway allow abortion for social, economic or family reasons until fetal viability (the definition of which is not specified). German law allows abortion on grounds of serious risk to health throughout pregnancy, explicitly noting that this covers both physical and mental health.

Moreover, unlike in the United States, many of these countries include abortion under national health insurance policies, as do most other Northern and Western European countries, meaning that patients do not have to finance the costs of abortion care themselves.

Even more problematic is the underlying assertion that new bans and restrictions on access to abortion dovetail with a European approach to abortion. This is highly disingenuous.

The fact is that most European countries are moving to expand access to abortion, not limit it. In the majority of countries, European lawmakers have moved steadily forward for decades on the issue of access to abortion. They have removed bans, increased abortion’s legality and taken steps to ensure laws and policies on abortion are guided by public health evidence and clinical best practices.

Honestly or not, Nancy Mace tries to portray herself as "in the middle" on several issues, a loyal Republican but not at odds with the 21st century, a potential darling of the mainstream media.  She doesn't stimulate the erogenous zones of the Republican base but, if she continues to be dishonest about abortion, she may sometime emerge beyond the First Congressional District of South Carolina.

 

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Tweet of the Day- Receipts in Plain Sight

To my friends in the media… it is called “receipts”… stop giving performance artists a venue to preach moderation & then vote extreme! She still voted for the damn bill!!! https://t.co/GTVpMmeUyj

— Jaime Harrison, DNC Chair (@harrisonjaime) January 12, 2023

Mace first stated "I'm pro-life but the vast majority of people in my district did not agree with Roe being overturned."  Although Mace is not "pro-life" but anti-abortion rights, this is largely accurate because the record indicates that she has no problem with access of women to contraception.  However, after these first words, the congresswoman strung together a few self-admiring sentences, remarking

And I'm pro-life but the vast majority of people in my district did not agree with Roe being overturned. We would town hall after town hall trying to find and talk about that common ground and not race to the fringes and I would ask my colleagues "you know, show some compassion to women. Show compassion especially to rape victims or girls who are victims of incest, uh, you know we've got to show love and compassion even when we disagree and not act liked (?) sometimes, which is what we do on some of these issues because we want to beat our chests. We want the base to love us but I've just chosen this election- I had two big elections this year- a primary, a big primary and a big general election that you can stick to your principles and values. You can find middle ground and you can win big and that's the lesson I learned that many of my colleagues haven't quite figured it out yet and I am very worried about our agenda. Uh, I know there are other swing district Republicans that want to stay in the majority and we're going to have to be vocal sooner rather than late. We're going to have to come together and find a dozen of us who are going to put a stop to this when it happens.

Remarkably, Representative Mace said all this without coming up for air and- as is Harrison's point- without a whit of challenge from co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski (Scarborough).

Mace herself has leapt to the challenge of beating one's own chest, having already introduced a bill which would require Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his staff "to fly commercial... until the issues with Southwest and the FAA are investigated and resolved." Performative behavior is alive and well in the GOP caucus.

On Wednesday, Representative Mace voted for two measures proposed by fellow Republicans, and approved, in the House. According to ABC News, one "would condemn violence against facilities, groups and churches opposed to abortions" and the other "would mandate health care providers give care to an infant that is born alive after a failed abortion."

Democrats actively oppose any law guaranteeing exportation of plants/vegetation to Jupiter.

Keep telling us about sh*t that doesn’t happen, bruh. You’re doing great. https://t.co/zoeiLamvM5

— Leah Torres, MD (@LeahNTorres) January 12, 2023

If passed by the Senate (which it won't be) and signed by the President (which it wouldn't be), this measure would at best be inconsequential. On August 15, 2002  the Born Alive Infants Protection Act was signed into law by President Bush, who contended it "ensures that every infant born alive- including an infant who survives an abortion procedure- is considered a person under federal law."

But that's not all. On July 15, 2002 Mace failed to vote on the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act of 2022 and voted against the Women's Health Protection Act of 2022.  On April 25, 2019 she voted with the overwhelming majority of her GOP colleagues in the South Carolina House of Representatives to approve the Prohibits Abortion After a Fetal Heartbeat is Detected bill. 

Of course, once the US Supreme Court handed down its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturning Roe v. Wade and awakened the nation's pro-choice majority, the congresswoman would conceal her record. In a general election debate last October against her Democratic opponent, Mace claimed "she just said that I supported and signed on to a bill that would ban all abortions without exceptions. That's a complete and utter lie. The word 'abortion' isn't even in that bill."

Mace had not been a co-sponsor. However, the bill, later signed into law by the Republican governor, included the word "abortion" sixty-two (62) times. And, oh yea, the title.

As suggested by Jaime Harrison, Nancy Mace is a performance artist who preaches moderation when politically advantageous but refuses to challenge her party's effort to force a woman into giving birth. She's given license by news hosts anxious to convince the public that there are two Republican parties: one "conservative" and one "moderate." Although a small majority of Republicans is mainstream and a large majority sympathetic to insurrection, there is ideologically only one, extremely conservative, Republican Party.

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