–  Former Neil Gorsuch clerk and current Trumpist Mike Davis, telling Steve Bannon why he should be Trump’s next Attorney General.

Alabama’s first election since the state’s IVF fiasco yielded a Democratic blowout. It’s one more reminder of just how important reproductive rights will be in 2024. 

• Know what’s better than a bunch of polls sizing up the national 2024 horse race in vague and unmeaningful ways? Actual voting results. In this case, they showed, yet again, how concerned real American voters are about reproductive rights. Meet Democrat Marilyn Lands, who won a special election in a Republican Alabama House district last night after putting her own harrowing abortion story at the center of her campaign. Alabama is ground zero for the post-Dobbs reality, ever since the state has an effective abortion ban and even temporarily suspended IVF treatments after a Dobbs-enabled court ruled last month that frozen embryos could be considered live children. In a devastating ad, Lands looked straight into the camera and said: “These men just do not understand, or care, about women’s health. But. I. Do.”

• A couple key points here. First, this special election was a shellacking. Lands ran for this seat and lost in 2022 by seven points. Unofficially, she won last night by 25. Second, this is the deep South, not a suburban district outside Detroit or Milwaukee. A tidal wave of support for reproductive rights in a place like Alabama says as much as it did when voters revolted against anti-choice policies in deep-red Kansas right after Dobbs was decided. 

• What does all this suggest for November 2024? Or, more specifically, what happens when a clear electoral advantage on reproductive rights collides with President Joe Biden’s low (but improving) poll numbers? The dynamics of a small-turnout Alabama special are a world away from a national presidential race. Dems will have to do a lot of work to ensure the stakes of 2024 are obvious to women, independents, and everyone else in swing districts and suburbs all across America. It will help that disgraced former President Donald Trump, with a MAGA base eager to ban abortion everywhere for everyone, is still flirting with a 15-week national abortion ban. Even today his surrogates are still going on TV to brag about overturning Roe. 

Yesterday, Strict Scrutiny’s Leah Litman told us the Supreme Court is unlikely to drop yet another anti-choice ruling just months before the election by restricting medical abortion with mifepristone. That would only re-antagonize women verifiably mobilized by Dobbs. So while it makes sense to limit your assumptions for extrapolating one local Alabama district to the whole nation, the trend here is even more instructive: In every election, ballot measure, and special where reproductive freedom has centered the race post-Dobbs, it’s won. As Crooked’s Erin Ryan says, when it comes to a vote: “Abortion is undefeated.” Add Alabama to the list.


 

We’re less than 100 days away from the release of Jon, Jon, and Tommy’s upcoming book Democracy or Else: How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps. To make sure you stay hydrated in the fight for democracy, we’re giving away limited edition Democracy or Else water bottles. To get your water bottle, all you have to do is pre-order the book, upload a copy of the receipt, and you’ll be entered for a chance to win. It’s that easy! 150 lucky pre-order-ers will win, so head to crooked.com/books for the details.

New polling suggests Americans’ support for Israel’s actions in Gaza is unraveling. Gallup found that 55% of Americans now disapprove of Israel’s military action, five points more than in November. The share of Americans who say they approve is down nine points. Most Republicans still back Israel, but support among Democrats and independents has cratered: Just 36% of independents and 18% of Dems say they approve of Israel’s actions.  With all the caveats about single-poll conclusions in place, these numbers suggest a massive, political pole-reversal from where the American public started in October. 

Progressives have been furious over Joe Biden’s full support for Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s government for months. Even so, for a time, Biden could reasonably reassure himself that his position was still relatively popular with the broad electorate. If these numbers are right, however, that’s over. And there’s plenty of evidence that Dem leaders and the White House have known this for a while.  

Democrats have already begun putting a lot of work into public displays of rejection of Netanyahu. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) public call for new elections in Israel—and by implication, an end to Netanyahu’s government—stands out.  This week the U.S. delegation to the United Nations, under direct orders from the White House, infuriated Israel by allowing a ceasefire resolution to pass in the UN Security Council. This all comes at a new low point in Biden’s already-frosty relationship with Netanyahu, who is promising to push into Rafah in Southern Gaza no matter what the Americans think. Israel appears to be losing support in the places where 2024 will be decided. On Wednesday, Biden was interrupted once again, this time during a stop in North Carolina, by demonstrators angry about his stance on the war in Gaza.  Biden told the crowd that the protestors “have a point.” The president said: “We need to get a lot more care into Gaza.”

Joe Lieberman, the longtime senator from Connecticut and Democratic nominee for vice president in 2000, died on Wednesday in New York City due to complications from a fall. He was 82.

A federal appeals court extended the temporary blockade on Texas’s SB 4, which makes illegal border crossing a state crime and empowers local cops to jail migrants. The Fifth Circuit has a hearing on the law next week. 

Donald Trump is back to attacking Judge Juan (aka, ‘The Juan who knocks’) Merchan—and the judge’s daughter—a day after Merchan slapped Trump with a limited gag order in the upcoming election fraud / hush-money trial in Manhattan.  

BTW, here’s a really good guide to understanding Trump’s imminent 34-count criminal trial.

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has decided not to run for president on the No Labels ticket, according to the Washington Post.  

Election-denying, failed GOP Arizona Gov. candidate Kari Lake is throwing in the towel in a Maricopa County election official’s defamation suit. Lake, who’s now running for Senate, is simply giving up, while spinning hard to avoid admitting that she’s admitting defeat. 

A judge in California recommended that former Trump lawyer John Eastman be disbarred over his attempts to challenge Trump's 2020 election defeat. 

Who kept bankrolling Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign long after it was obviously doomed? Why, rich donors with interests before the state! 

Wanna work at the RNC? Better be ready to shout out your loyalty to Donald Trump’s election lies! The new management is screening hires to make sure they believe the 2020 election was stolen, the Washington Post reports. 

Alleged Trump co-conspirator and 2020 coup plotter Jeffrey Clark took the Fifth over and over in his disbarment hearing before the DC Bar today. With the federal Jan. 6 trial on hold, Clark’s bid to keep his law license may be the closest thing to a hearing of top-level coup evidence we get before 2024. 

North Carolina GOP’s Superintendent of Schools candidate, Michele Morrow, who’s already on record calling for Barack Obama and Joe Biden to be killed, also was a spokesperson for a group that called school shootings false flags and said Barack Obama has a “Hitler blood line.” 

An alley outside the residence of Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. has been renamed Alexei Navalny Way. Both the DC Council and congressional lawmakers pushed for the troll. 

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Thailand’s parliament overwhelmingly approved same-sex marriage, moving it closer to becoming the third Asian nation to do so.

A reported mountain lion in South San Francisco turned out to be just a “hefty house cat.”