memeorandum: Satanic Temple goes after abortion bans (Steph Solis/Axios)

4:55 PM ET, October 4, 2022

Top Items:

Greg Bluestein / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Stunning developments dog Herschel Walker's campaign at pivotal time — Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker has weathered crises that have leveled other campaigns and still remained within striking distance of Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock thanks to relatively unshakable support from many in the GOP base.

Zach Schonfeld / The Hill:

Trump defends Herschel Walker after abortion report — Former President Trump on Tuesday backed Georgia Republican Senate nominee Herschel Walker's denial of a Daily Beast report suggesting he paid for a woman's abortion in 2009 after they conceived a child.

Discussion: Breitbart, Raw Story, Mediaite, Townhall, ABC News, Insider, PoliticusUSA and The Daily Caller

Erick-Woods Erickson / Erick Erickson Show Notes:

About the Herschel Walker Story — So, to start, can I just say the reactions to me tweeting about this story are a bit nuts. I don't think I'm supposed to carry water for anyone. But people on the right are infuriated that I'm not standing by their man.

Discussion: Politico, The Hill, Mediaite, ABC News, The Root, NPR, New York Times and Washington Post

New York Times:

Republicans Rally Behind Herschel Walker After Abortion Report — The Georgia Senate candidate, who supports a no-exceptions ban on abortion, paid for a girlfriend to have the procedure in 2009, according to The Daily Beast. Mr. Walker denied it, and G.O.P. allies are sticking by him.

NBC News:
National Republicans stand by Herschel Walker after report he paid for an abortion

Greg Bluestein / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Georgia Republicans distance themselves from Herschel Walker after abortion report

Discussion: Politico, Kansas City Star, Washington Post, HuffPost, FiveThirtyEight, New York Magazine, The Atlantic, Alternet.org, Breitbart, Rolling Stone, The Daily Wire, Raw Story, The Daily Caller, NRSC, CNBC and Mediaite

Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
What happens next with Herschel Walker

Discussion: Insider, New York Magazine, NBC News, The Daily Beast, PoliticusUSA and CBS News

Shannon McCaffrey / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Herschel Walker's campaign in turmoil as adult son accuses him of violence, lying

David Leonhardt / New York Times: A Public Health Success Story

Jessica Taylor / Cook Political Report:

Pennsylvania Senate Moves Back to Toss Up — When we shifted our Pennsylvania Senate rating to Lean Democrat about six weeks ago, we included this key caveat — Republican spending against Democratic nominee John Fetterman had yet to ramp up, and that while Republican Mehmet Oz still …

Discussion: The Hill, National Review, Breitbart, Townhall and The Daily Caller

Greg Hilburn / USA Today:

Louisiana Democrat Katie Darling gives birth in ad for campaign against Steve Scalise — LAFAYETTE, La. —A digital ad from a Louisiana mother and Democratic congressional candidate has gone viral, focusing on the woman delivering her newborn baby boy last month while expressing alarm about the Bayou State's new abortion ban.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Federalist, Jezebel, LifeNews.com, Mediaite, New York Post, Twitchy and The Hill

Nate Cohn / New York Times:

Poll Update: Republicans Gain in the Senate — A closer look at Pennsylvania and Nevada, and some Democratic leads that seem vulnerable. — Two weeks ago, we noted early signs that Republicans were making gains in the race for the Senate. — Now it's clear the race has shifted toward Republicans in important ways.

Discussion: HotAir, CNN, The Dispatch and National Review

Marianne LeVine / Politico:
Dems agonize over N.C. spending debacle as Senate race tightens

Discussion: Associated Press, Washington Post, The Hill, Breitbart, Erick Erickson Show Notes, Townhall and Washington Examiner

Josh Kraushaar / Axios:
Scoop: Oz to report $17.2 million (including a $7 million loan)

Discussion: Breitbart and The Hill

Susan Page / USA Today:
Exclusive: Democrat Fetterman hangs onto 6-point lead over GOP's Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania Senate race

Discussion: HotAir, Katie Couric Media, The Hill, No More Mister Nice Blog and Punchbowl News

Bloomberg:

Musk Proposes to Buy Twitter for Original Price of $54.20 a Share — Elon Musk revived his bid for Twitter Inc. at the original offer price of $54.20 a share, potentially avoiding a courtroom fight over one of the most contentious acquisitions in recent history.

Eliot A. Cohen / The Atlantic:

Russia's Nuclear Bluster Is a Sign of Panic — Margarita Simonyan, the editor in chief of RT and one of Russia's top propagandists, has in the space of seven months gone from supreme confidence that Kyiv would fall in days to something like despair at Russia's shambolic mobilization and battlefield defeats.

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Washington Post:
Ukraine hammers Russian forces into retreat on east and south fronts

Discussion: Reuters, Fortune, The Mahablog, Fox News, middleeastmonitor.com, HotAir, Moon of Alabama, Daily Kos and NBC News

Tatiana Stanovaya / Carnegie Endowment …:
Russia's Elites Are Starting to Admit the Possibility of Defeat

Discussion: Tangle, Foreign Policy, The Daily Beast, Politico and Wall Street Journal

Sarah Polus / The Hill:

Ye, Candace Owens wear ‘White Lives Matter’ shirts at Paris Fashion week — Rapper and fashion designer Ye and conservative U.S. political commentator Candace Owens made headlines with matching “White Lives Matter” t-shirts at Paris Fashion Week on Monday. — The duo, who are both Black …

Washington Post:

In Trump White House, classified records routinely mishandled, aides say — The jumble of secret and not-secret documents found by the FBI was typical of how Donald Trump handled records, former staffers said — Aides who had worked in Donald Trump's White House were not surprised this summer …

Discussion: USA Today, Associated Press, Rolling Stone, Alternet.org, Raw Story, ABC13, PoliticusUSA and Insider

New York Times:
Lawyer Declined Trump Request to Tell Archives All Material Was Returned

Discussion: The Guardian, Daily Kos, Occupy Democrats, Bloomberg, The Gateway Pundit, claytoonz, New York Post, Talking Points Memo, The Daily Signal, Raw Story, Insider, Mediaite, HuffPost, CNN, NBC News and CNBC

Benoit Faucon / Wall Street Journal:

Iran's Crippled Economy Sustains Protests After Religious Police Lit Flame — The country's middle class is shrinking for the first time in decades amid U.S. sanctions, corruption and economic mismanagement — TEHRAN—The protests that have gripped Iran for three weeks started over a headscarf …

Nahid Siamdoust / New Lines Magazine:
Woman, Life, Liberty: A Slogan One Hundred Years in the Making

Discussion: The Noösphere

Sohrab Ahmari / The American Conservative: Iran's Empty Uprising

Natasha Korecki / NBC News:

Ron Johnson acknowledges texting with Trump attorney on Jan 6 — “What would you do if you got a text from the attorney for the president of the United States?” Johnson said. “You respond to it.” — MILWAUKEE — Sen. Ron Johnson on Tuesday acknowledged he exchanged text messages …

Donald Judd / CNN:
Ron Johnson again says January 6 was not an ‘armed insurrection,’ adds ‘protesters did teach us’ how to use flag poles as weapons

Discussion: Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Insider and Political Wire

Politico:

Arizona GOP Chair pleaded the Fifth, Jan. 6 committee attorney says — Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward asserted her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid answering questions from the Jan. 6 select committee, a lawyer for the panel revealed in federal court Tuesday.

Discussion: Raw Story

James Ball / Rolling Stone:

Roger Waters: I'm on a Ukrainian ‘Kill List’ — In an explosive, wide-ranging interview, the Pink Floyd co-founder discusses his controversial views on Ukraine — and Russia, and Wikileaks, and Israel, and so much more. — ROGER WATERS DOES not want you to ignore his politics.

Discussion: Variety and Digby's Hullabaloo

Julia Jacobs / New York Times:

Angelina Jolie Details Abuse Allegations Against Brad Pitt in Countersuit — In court papers related to a legal battle over a French winery they once owned together, she claims that he was abusive to her and their children during a 2016 plane ride. — Angelina Jolie filed a cross complaint …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, IndieWire and Page Six

Kate Riga / Talking Points Memo:

Jackson Turns Originalism Against Conservatives To Argue For Minority Voting Protections — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson turned the favored tactic of her right-wing peers on its head Tuesday, advancing an originalist argument to support protections for racial minorities.

Discussion: New York Daily News, Mother Jones and Raw Story

Katie Glueck / New York Times:

Republican Group's Ads Take On Fetterman Over Gun Incident Involving Black Jogger — The $1.5 million ad buy focuses on when Mr. Fetterman brandished a shotgun to stop and detain an unarmed Black jogger in 2013. — The super PAC affiliated with the Republican Jewish Coalition is beginning …

Discussion: The Daily Wire

Lauren Mayk / NBC10 Philadelphia:
Fetterman Campaign to Launch ‘Republicans for Fetterman’ as Pa. Senate Race Tightens

Discussion: Fox News and CNN

Ben Samuels / Haaretz:

Obama Charges Netanyahu as a World Leader Who Fueled ‘Putinism’, Report Reveals — The Justice Department released the transcript of the off-record conversation, which took place between Obama and reporters three days before Trump assumed power — WASHINGTON - Former U.S. President Barack …

Discussion: The Times of Israel, Jacobin and HuffPost

Nouran Salahieh / CNN:

Hurricane Ian's death toll rises as crews in Florida go door to door in search for survivors in decimated neighborhoods — fired at least one ballistic missile over the north of the country in an escalation of Pyongyang's missile tests that prompted immediate backlash from Tokyo. CNN's Blake Essig reports.

Discussion: Yale Climate Connections, The Daily Wire, The Daily Caller and The Daily Beast

Washington Examiner:
Biased media hit Florida before Ian

Discussion: Oil Change International, The American Spectator and IJR

Susan J. Demas / Michigan Advance:

Michigan Republicans beg Whitmer to zip it on abortion rights — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gives the keynote address at the 2022 Mackinac Policy Conference on June 2, 2022 | Susan J. Demas graphic using Allison R. Donahue photo — When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gave her keynote address …

Discussion: MLive.com and Talking Points Memo