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Ever since the Supreme Court dismantled federal abortion protections by overturning Roe v. Wade, reproductive rights has been a losing issue electorally for the GOP. Recent ballot measures, even in red states like Ohio, Montana, Kentucky, and Kansas, have been energizing forces, with voters across the political spectrum coming out in droves to vote to protect abortion rights. And in this election cycle, Trump and other GOP candidates have largely attempted to distance themselves from the issue or moderate their rhetoric on the procedure, in the hope of retaining the votes of moderate Republicans and suburban women enraged by the extreme bans passing across the country.

So when Trump took the stage in Pennsylvania on Monday and told the women in the crowd that, "I will be your protector," and that, if he's reelected, "You will no longer be thinking about abortion," perhaps he thought his reassurances might put an end to the issue. It's an understandable desire for a candidate who has bragged about sexually assaulting women, who was found liable for sexual abuse, and who is solely responsible for the makeup of the court that handed down the Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe. "I always thought women liked me. But the fake news media keeps saying women don't like me," Trump mused to the crowd. 

Not to be outdone in the weirdo-ways-to-highlight-your-abortion-position-as-a-political-liability category, Ohio GOP Senate candidate Bernie Moreno was filmed last Friday at a town hall dismissing suburban women's concerns over reproductive rights. With abortion not specifically on the ballot in Ohio in 2024, Moreno was recorded saying: "You know, the left has a lot of single issue voters. Sadly, by the way, there's a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women that are like, 'Listen, abortion is it. If I can't have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anybody else.' … Okay. It's a little crazy by the way, but — especially for women that are like past 50 — I'm thinking to myself, 'I don't think that's an issue for you.'"

When the footage of the town hall was published Monday by a local NBC affiliate, Moreno's campaign attempted to counter the backlash by claiming that he was "clearly making a tongue-in-cheek joke" meant to criticize Democrats.  

So what to make of these unprovoked attempts by Trump and Moreno to downplay Republicans' extreme position on abortion? 

Josh Marshall looks at Trump's remarks as part of his politics of dominance, where words are acts of aggression. Viewed this way, Trump's not using words for persuasion, or to make people believe him, but rather to assert his dominance, often through repetition, regardless of fact. You can read Josh's perspective in an unpaywalled edition of The Backchannel (free this week for TPM Weekly readers).

On Moreno's statement, Emine Yücel has the reporting and Kate Riga brings you the analysis.

Elsewhere on TPM, where we were not focused on a single issue, Hunter Walker unearthed some of the now-deleted webpages flagged by the DOJ as part of a Russian influence campaign and found multiple articles that advanced Trump's false claims about non-citizen voting. The alleged Kremlin propaganda campaign included quotes from former Trump advisor Stephen Miller and a fake version of the Washington Post.

Meanwhile in Cafe (TPM's home for opinion and analysis), Benjamin Looker and Todd Swanstrom looked at how, in the Reagan era, Republicans made the concept of "neighborhood" a key component of their political vocabulary. But in Trump's bizarrely dystopian rendering of cities, meaningful place-based ties either don't exist or don't matter.

Also: as House Speaker Mike Johnson hedges on whether he'd oversee the certification of a Kamala Harris win (if Republicans hold the House), Khaya Himmelman examines how a recent rule change will allow the Trumpy Georgia Election Board to delay the certification of the election results in the state and reports on what safeguards are in place to keep them from blocking certification indefinitely.

And this week on The Josh Marshall Podcast featuring Kate Riga, Kate and Josh discuss recent polling, the competitive Senate races and various oddities happening in the Cornhusker State.

By Hunter Walker

The report would have been a blockbuster … if it were true. It was, however, completely fake. It included wholly made up quotes that appear in no other search results and faked Washington Post branding to advance the thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory that non-citizens are voting en masse for Democrats in U.S. elections.

Back in the Reagan era, Republicans made "neighborhood" a key component of their political vocabulary. But in Trump's bizarrely dystopian rendering of cities, meaningful place-based ties either don't exist or don't matter. Democrats can take the term back, making it the centerpiece of a fresh progressive vision.

Despite this safeguard, any delay in certification can and likely will spark unrest. Experts tell TPM that unrest or chaos injected into the election administration system could increase the possibility of administrative mistakes, thereby elevating the risk of potential violence against election workers or officials. It also could create a vacuum for bad actors to insert themselves and try to halt the process. 

RELATED: Trumpy Georgia Board Passes Another Disastrous Rule Blatantly Designed To Delay Election Results

The Nebraska Episode

Kate and Josh discuss recent polling, the competitive Senate races and various oddities happening in the Cornhusker State.

RELATED: Nebraska, Maine and New Annals of WT Actual F (MEMBERSHIP REQUIRED)

ONE MORE THING..

If you're not already a subscriber to TPM's Morning Memo newsletter from TPM executive editor David Kurtz (subscribe here), you likely missed today's segment on Trump's Military-Fantasy Complex. It really gets at how TPM approaches coverage of Trump, and for that reason we've reprinted it below:

In a series of three posts over the past month, TPM's Josh Kovensky has been unpacking the many disturbing elements of the emerging Trump II plan to harness the military for its own political ends in ways that are outside the bounds of American tradition and may be outside the law.

The series emerged organically as his reporting and that of other news outlets gradually helped to bring the issue into sharper focus. But that means we haven't promoted it as strongly or consistently as we might have otherwise. So I wanted to walk you through the major themes because if Trump wins in November, then in about six weeks' time, things will start moving very quickly and I don't want this potential threat flying under your radar.

The overarching theme of Josh's reporting is that Trump is drawn to using the military because it appeals to a series of fantasies he has:

1. The military is all powerful.
2. The military can augment his own power as president, particularly in areas where federalism and the law make the president inherently weaker.
3. Unlike other components of the federal government, the president can use the military free of congressional strings and oversight.

None of these fantasies is actually true, though they contain wisps and fragments of truth.

We've long known about Trump's attraction to the military, or at least to the trappings he perceives it to have: strength, power, loyalty. His obsession with "my generals" in his first term led him to surround himself with flag officers, most of whom came to despise and disrespect him.

What's new in Josh's reporting is how MAGA adherents want to co-opt the military for its own political ends, including: mass deportations, cracking down on domestic protests, and simply to project political strength.

Civilian rule over the military is a core American value. Keeping the military as an institution, non-partisan and out of politics remains a bedrock tradition. Not using the military for domestic purposes except in extreme cases is also a foundational value.

Trump's child-like fascination with the military as a way to shore up his own insecurities ignores all of that history and tradition and the laws that help preserve them. He would come into office perturbed that he hadn't made full use of the military his first time round and determined not to be thwarted from doing so this time.

It's a particular flavor of the Trump threat that we haven't encountered before in our history and which we may not be sufficiently prepared for: It threatens the military as we know it and civilian life. Because there's no precedent for it, predicting how it will unfold is difficult. But we'll be on it when and if it does.