Cross-Examination

• Graham introduces federal abortion ban: On Tuesday, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced a bill that would enact a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks of a pregnancy while allowing exceptions in the case of rape, incest, and the life of the mother. Graham asserted, “If [Republicans] take back the House and Senate, I can assure you we’ll have a vote on our bill.” Just hours later, however, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was quickly throwing a bucket of cold federalism water on Graham’s claim. “In terms of scheduling,” McConnell said, “I think most of the members of my conference prefer that this be dealt with at the state level.” Indeed, that was precisely the rationale behind the Supreme Court’s decision on Dobbs overturning Roe — abortion is a matter for each state to decide. Graham’s announcement effectively played right into the Democrats’ disingenuous political claims of an activist SCOTUS that acted to end abortion. The right to life of a preborn child is the leading civil rights issue of our day, but it takes greater political strategy to move the ball forward on the issue than Graham has shown mere weeks out from the midterms. It’s not that Graham’s bill is extreme by any measure, though that’s exactly how Democrats and the Leftmedia will frame it. The real extremist position is the Democrats’ demand for abortion all the way up until birth.

• NYT employees aren’t happy: Over 1,300 employees at The New York Times are fit to be tied over the brass’s demand that its journalists return to in-office work beginning this week. After having gone to remote work like many other companies during the COVID pandemic, the Times has finally insisted that its employees return to the office at least three days a week. “People are livid,” observed veteran NYT editor Tom Coffey. As one NYT employee, Haley Willis, argued: “The @nytimes is giving employees branded lunch boxes this week as a return-to-office perk. We want respect and a fair contract instead — so I’m working from home this week along with 1,300 of my @NYTimesGuild and @NYTimesGuildTech colleagues, with support from @WirecutterUnion.” This all comes as the company is in the midst of salary negotiations with employees represented by the News Guild union. Ironically, the same “journalists” who tell us what a great job Joe Biden is doing with the economy complain about sky-high inflation costing them more money to have to travel into work.

• Russian election interference continues: U.S. intelligence officials reported that since 2014, Russia has spent over $300 million in covert efforts to influence elections in at least 24 different countries, including the U.S. According to State Department spokesman Ned Price, “What Russia is doing around the world in terms of its election meddling is also an assault on sovereignty, is an effort to chip away at the ability of people around the world to choose the governments that they see best fit, to represent them to represent their interests, to represent their values.” The report did not include any assessment of the effectiveness of Moscow’s election interference funding. The idea that Russia is the only nation engaged in spending money in an effort to influence election outcomes in other countries is naive; indeed, one wonders how much the U.S. has sent covertly to preferred political candidates in other countries.

Headlines

• Biden slammed for celebrating Inflation Reduction Act passage after inflation worse than expected, stock market tanks (Daily Wire)

• “A serious inflation problem”: Top Obama economist sounds the alarm over prices (Daily Wire)

• Biden administration under pressure as rail strike threat builds (Fox Business)

• $1.3 billion in COVID relief funds ended up overseas, may have funded international criminal organizations (Free Beacon)

• Capitol Police whistleblower memo lays out J6 “intelligence failures” on Pelosi watch (Just the News)

• FBI hired Steele dossier source as secret informant, court filings say (Free Beacon)

• Former Twitter security chief tells Congress that company’s leadership is “misleading the public” and that its cybersecurity failures cause “real harm to real people” (Not the Bee) | Foreign agents are “on the payroll” and can access user data (Fox Business)

• Eight arrested in human smuggling operation that allegedly transported migrants in suitcases and water tanks (CBS News)

• West Virginia abortion bill passes Senate and House (WOWK-TV)

• Depravity beyond measure: Indiana University erects statue to honor wicked pedophile (Not the Bee)

• Ken Starr, investigator behind Clinton impeachment, dies at 76 (The Hill)

• How misdirection, drone warfare and fresh troops powered Ukraine to surprise wins (NY Post)

• Policy: Seven highlights from National Conservatism Conference (Daily Signal)

• Satire: Democrats propose another Inflation Reduction Act to combat inflation created by first Inflation Reduction Act (Babylon Bee)

• Humor: Twenty-three things more secure than the southern border (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.