Trump’s New CDC Director Promised Dystopian New Abortion Policy
https://newrepublic.com/post/214078/donald-trump-new-cdc-director-abortion-surveillance
Trump’s New CDC Director Promised Dystopian New Abortion Policy
Dr. Erica Schwartz claimed “abortion surveillance” was key to the CDC’s mission.
President Donald Trump’s new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention thinks the government should know if you’ve had an abortion.
During her confirmation hearing Wednesday, Dr. Erica Schwartz committed to improving “abortion surveillance,” despite advocates’ insistence that federal tracking violates patient privacy and undermines access.
“Abortion surveillance is absolutely a critical component of what the CDC is currently doing,” Schwartz told lawmakers.
“I also want to make sure that certain states are not conflating emergency services and hiding abortions in that emergency services case definition,” she continued. “We need to make sure we’re pulling out true abortions and making sure that we’re really having clear case definitions regarding abortions so the data is actually accurate.”
There is no factual evidence suggesting that states are “hiding” or purposefully misreporting information about abortions to the CDC, HuffPost reported Thursday. The CDC’s data collection on abortion is currently voluntary, meaning that certain states, such as California, New Jersey, and Maryland, don’t report annual abortion numbers to the federal government.
Schwartz’s comment is especially preposterous because in states with abortion bans, the clear case definitions between abortion and emergency services are acutely felt.
Hospitals in states with abortion bans were more likely to violate federal life-saving rules and delay treatment for pregnancy-related emergencies. It’s for this reason that pregnant people living in states with abortion bans face a significantly higher risk of death than those in other areas of the country.
Mini Timmaraju, the president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, released a statement saying that Schwartz’s confirmation “cements an anti-abortion agenda at the center of the CDC’s work, rather than containing outbreaks and keeping the public safe.”
Last month, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche promised that he was working with the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that the Dobbs decision would become “permanent” nationwide. Now, Schwartz may be part of the push.
The commitment to ramp up abortion monitoring comes also amid a renaissance in dystopian surveillance technology brought on by the Trump administration—and nationwide revolt against such tech.
Mitch McConnell Finally Releases Health Update
It’s still not clear if or when he’s coming back to work.
Ailing Senator Mitch McConnell has been discharged from rehabilitation after being hospitalized nearly two months ago.
“Earlier today, I was discharged from the rehabilitation center to continue my recovery at home. Elaine and I are grateful for the many well wishes and support from friends, colleagues, and Kentuckians, and for the attentive care I’ve received from excellent doctors, nurses, therapists, and hospital staff,” McConnell wrote in a statement released Thursday afternoon.
“On the advice of my doctors, I’ll maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy from home during the state work period, and I’ll continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business.”
This is the most significant health update we’ve gotten from McConnell in almost two months, as the 84-year old Republican has been MIA since June 14 when he was found unconscious on the floor of his Washington, D.C. home. After that incident, McConnell was taken to the hospital by ambulance, and his office has released just two photos and a press statement until this announcement. Rumors of his death or incapacitation have swirled the entire time, with his staff offering little clarification.
It’s unclear if McConnell will be returning to work anytime soon, despite warnings from Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat.
Trump-Linked Law Firm Chosen to Represent Immigrant Children in Court
The head of an immigrant rights organization called the firm “clearly unqualified.”
Donald Trump’s administration is awarding a $150 million contract to give legal representation to immigrant children to a small Texas law firm with ties to the president—where only two of the attorneys actually practice immigration law.
The Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR, plans to give the contract to the Houston-based Burke Law Group, the Trump administration announced late Tuesday. Marcella Burke, one of the group’s four founders, was previously appointed by Trump to the Senior Executive Service for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Interior Department.
The contract for Burke Law Group was a “single source cooperative agreement,” meaning the firm was selected without a standard bidding process, according to the Associated Press.
Of the 26 attorneys currently employed by Burke Law, only two practice immigration law, per the firm’s website.
Michael Lukens, executive director of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, a group providing children legal representation in the Washington, D.C., area, told reporters the group was “clearly unqualified.”
The contract is set to begin on August 15, while the existing contract already expired last Friday, according to the Associated Press.
ORR officials previously said that they’d offered to extend the existing contract if providers agreed to share information about their clients with the government. But several nonprofit leaders said that the government had requested confidential information about the children and their sponsors, making them concerned that the information would be used to target families during immigration enforcement operations.
The decision comes as the Trump administration has rapidly expedited the removal of immigrant children. Immigration hearings for children are reportedly being moved up by weeks or even months, making it increasingly difficult for children to obtain legal resources or relief. At the same time, the Trump administration has made it increasingly difficult for immigrant children to be allowed to stay in the United States. Sponsors in the U.S. now face stricter documentation requirements and even risk arrest themselves.
Immigrant children are often subjected to extended stays with the ORR, during which they can be subjected to all kinds of alleged mistreatment and abuse, either at government shelters or foster homes.
In June, there were an average of 1,796 children in ORR custody, whose average length of care was 194 days—roughly six months, according to the office’s website.
Centrists Plan to Spend Millions Against Socialists After El-Sayed Win
The Third Way wants to drop $15 million between now and 2028 to discredit democratic socialism.
Centrist Democratic lobbyists and strategists are preparing to go to “war” with the left following Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary.
The New York Times reported Thursday on Third Way, a prevalent, well-documented, dark money–funded, neoliberal think tank bankrolled by billionaires, corporations, and Wall Street executives, among others. Its president, Jonathan Cowan (who has worked for Bill Clinton and Andrew Cuomo), described the recent electoral success of progressives like El-Sayed, as well as democratic socialists, as “deeply troubling”—and he’s ready to spend millions of dollars to fight it.
“We are preparing for the next war that is coming.… It is deeply troubling to see radical, far-left candidates winning in places that are potentially presidential swing states,” Cowan told the Times, later describing the Democratic Socialists of America—a group that believes “working people should run both the economy and society democratically to meet human needs, not to make profits for a few”—as a “mortal danger.”
Third Way wants to make DSA feel the pain of pushing prison abolition, reparations, a 32-hour workweek, and other policies it sees as overly radical. The organization is preparing to drop $15 million between now and 2028 to discredit democratic socialism, but it’s unclear where the money will come from.
“The upside of being associated with more extreme movements is you get attention and real and perceived energy and outsider status,” said centrist Welcome PAC founder Liam Kerr.
The left sounded off against the article on social media.
“Just so you understand, this is wall street, the military industrial complex, the Israel lobby, big tech AI money and all kinds of corporate money declaring war on the only faction of the dems that believes in something and knows how to fight Trump,” commentator Kyle Kulinski wrote. “‘Third Way’ is a Diet MAGA op.”
“Hey Shane is there a reason you don’t mention who funds Third Way, WelcomePAC and Center for New Liberalism?” podcaster Adam Johnson said to the article’s author, Shane Goldmacher. “They’re backed entirely by pro Israel billionaires, big pharma, big oil, big tobacco, Wall St, etc. isn’t this worth noting when reporting on their alleged motives?”
The Democratic centrist response to its own voters rejecting it and the establishment has been to reinject millions of dollars back into that failed establishment. While the DSA has certainly run spirited campaigns, what has stood out most in this ongoing left-versus-liberal battle is liberals’ institutional lack of vision—and their beholdenness to corporate power.
Why can’t we stop giving Israel money to blow up babies in Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran? Why can’t we make sure Americans don’t go into financial ruin just to get chemotherapy? Why can’t we give the average person more power than corporate PACs and billionaires? These aren’t just frivolous talking points that only hold water in Bushwick—these are winning issues in the hearts and minds of Democratic voters across the country.
Lawyers for ICE Detainee Were Sounding Alarm Days Before He Died
Edwin López-Cornejo’s family and lawyer allege that he was medically neglected at Delaney Hall.
Edwin López-Cornejo, the 39-year-old Salvadoran immigrant who died in an unknown “medical emergency” at the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility on Saturday, had documented health concerns including epilepsy and high blood pressure just days before he died in the notoriously inhumane New Jersey detention center.
López-Cornejo’s attorney, Ingrid Echeverria, filed a habeas petition on July 24, referencing the various medications he was taking for epilepsy and blood pressure as justifications to have him released and prevent his transfer to another facility.
“If not, he at least asks that Respondents be required to give advance written notice before any transfer, identify the receiving facility, and ensure that his medications accompany him and are administered without interruption,” her petition stated.
López-Cornejo died just over a week later, the twenty-second person to die in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody this year—and the second to die in Delaney Hall.
Delaney Hall has been the center of anti-ICE protests, as multiple reports of inhumane treatment—from lack of adequate food to unsanitary conditions—have led hundreds of detainees to go on a hunger and labor strike. It is run by the private prison company GEO Group, and multiple elected officials have been denied entry to inspect the facility.
And while ICE insists that the facility meets condition requirements, López-Cornejo’s death gives the public yet another reason for disbelief. Hundreds of protesters met outside the center on Monday and Tuesday, joining local politicians in calling for its closure.
“Private companies like GEO Group are getting paid to keep people detained. Giving people proper medical care costs them money; neglect doesn’t. Medical abuse is now a business model, and ICE is encouraging it,” New Jersey Democratic Representative Analilia Mejia said on Tuesday. “Edwin Jovanny López Cornejo should still be alive today.”
Trump Moves to Slash Crucial Education Program for Kids
The Trump administration is planning to deregulate Head Start.
The Trump administration is plotting a sweeping overhaul of Head Start that could threaten childcare for more than half a million children across the country.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday a proposed rule that would “increase access” to Head Start by “capping the cost of administrative overhead and reducing compliance-driven activities.”
The proposed rule would grant states the authority to set certain standards, including rules on class size and student-adult ratios, education requirements, background checks, and transportation practices. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has claimed that Head Start lost more than 100,000 slots during the Biden administration due to “burdensome paperwork.”
Vox’s Rachel Cohen Booth argued on X that the proposed changes would mean “larger class sizes, fewer staff and credential requirements, reduced health and family services, and potentially shorter hours.”
Without federal regulations to set the bar, the quality of care will likely depend on a person’s zip code. The proposed rule would also give parents more control over “structure and curriculum,” marking Head Start programs as yet another arena for President Trump’s inane culture wars.
The proposed rule would reduce the amount of money Head Start centers could spend on administrative overhead from 15 percent to 5 percent, thus saving the government an estimated $2.2 billion, according to Alex Adams, the assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
But Yvette Sanchez-Fuentes, senior vice president of Start Early in Illinois, told NPR that administrative costs are used to help fill the gaps for children who need special support. “If you, for example, have children with disabilities you [can use] some of those funds to pay for additional special services or staff with specialties who could come in and support kids,” she said.
In a press release, HHS claimed that the money saved would be reinvested back into the program “to preserve or expand” spots for more than 200,000 children—making it unclear whether the change would actually create new spots or just prevent them from disappearing.
Trump, 80, Forgets How to Spell “Dumb”
He said it with his whole chest in the middle of a speech.
Donald Trump can’t seem to get even the most basic facts straight.
The 80-year-old president raised some eyebrows during a speaking engagement at the Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas Wednesday when he verbally misspelled a four-letter word.
“Nobody knows that ‘dumb’ doesn’t have a ‘b’,” Trump said sincerely, before proverbially patting himself on the back for cooking up the derogatory term “dumocrats” for his liberal opponents.
“I can’t imagine I didn’t think about that 10 years ago when I started this whole situation,” he added.
Trump
was there to speak about his “no tax on tips” policy, but over the
course of an hour-plus speech, he instead managed to stun attendees
again when he told the Nevadan crowd that “Michael Whatley should be your governor.”
Whatley, however, is running for Senate in North Carolina.
Trump
is the second-oldest man to ever serve as America’s commander-in-chief,
and his increasingly erratic behavior has sparked global concern in
recent months about his stability and judgment.
The octogenarian has spent hours at Walter Reed Medical Center on multiple occasions over the last year, fallen asleep during more than a dozen critical meetings, appeared lost and disoriented around foreign heads of state, frequently slurred his speech, and has emerged with discolored and bruised skin on several occasions.
He has also derailed press conferences to throw cheap and petty insults at members of the media, aggressed against the pope, abducted foreign leaders, sparked wars without congressional approval, and has become so obsessed with his Washington vanity projects that he has a difficult time focusing on anything else. That last detail has been flagged by leading clinical psychologists as a telltale symptom of dementia.
Leaked Texts Show Max Miller Has Habit of Holding Child’s Toy Hostage
Text messages and emails indicate the Ohio representative regularly refused to give his toddler daughter’s favorite stuffed bunny back to her.
Ohio Representative Max Miller has denied holding a little blue bunny hostage—but a series of messages shows the alleged abuser has a pattern of stealing his two-year-old daughter’s toy.
Miller has been accused of physically abusing his ex-wife Emily Moreno, daughter of Senator Bernie Moreno, for years. Amid the many abuse allegations against Miller, the lawmaker has taken the time to refute one distressing detail about his relationship with his daughter.
Speaking to the press Monday, Senator Moreno claimed that over the weekend, Miller had refused to return his daughter’s blue bunny. “This girl is crying at night because she can’t sleep without her little blue bunny. His answer is ‘I’m just not gonna give it to you,’” Moreno said.
“This is the level of total and complete depravity,” he added.
Miller denied withholding his daughter’s beloved bunny, claiming that he’d scheduled it to be picked up from his mailbox through the family’s parental coordinator, Dr. Deborah Koricke.
However, a series of screenshotted messages obtained by Mother Jones’s Abby Vesoulis suggest that Miller has a history of keeping the blue bunny hostage.
In one email dated March 19, 2025, Emily Moreno begged Miller to return the toy. “Can [redacted] please have her bunny back? She’s had it since birth, sleeps with it every night, carries it with her around the house, and sees it as a source of comfort,” Moreno wrote.
She also urged Miller not to “punish” their daughter because he was upset with his ex-wife.
In a text message exchange from May, Senator Moreno asked if the bunny had been left behind, and Miller replied that the family could go through the parent coordinator to retrieve it. “I have no notes or record of what you are referring to,” Miller added.
“It’s the blue bunny she sleeps with, but got it,” Moreno said.
In an email from August 3 (right after the weekend Senator Moreno mentioned), Moreno’s attorney reached out to Miller’s lawyers in an attempt to have the bunny returned. “Why must this be a controversy? This is totally ridiculous. Please have Max return the bunny forthwith,” the attorney wrote.
In another text message from an unknown date, the family’s parent coordinator claimed that Miller “adamantly refuses” to leave the toy in the mailbox for Senator Moreno to retrieve.
The blue bunny-napping is bad, but the rest is worse.
Moreno has accused Miller of assaulting her, throwing a pot of boiling water on her, holding a gun to her head, and breaking their daughter’s collarbone. This week, Miller defended accidentally sharing a nude image of his daughter as part of his efforts to exonerate himself.
Trump Is Sneakily Changing His Plans for His Qatari Plane
It might not go to Trump’s presidential library like he promised.
The $400 million luxury jumbo jet that the Qatari royal family gifted President Trump may not go to his presidential library after all.
The New York Times reported Wednesday that the Trump administration and others involved in his library planning don’t currently have plans to move the Qatari jet into Trump’s upcoming presidential library, contradicting what the president said last year.
“It would go directly to the library after I leave office,” Trump said in May 2025. “I wouldn’t be using it. No.”
This plane has been the subject of controversy from the moment it was gifted. Trump insisted that at the time it was a gift for the Department of Defense, not him personally. Then the jet required millions of dollars of upgrades to make it safe enough to serve as the new Air Force One—so much so that Trump ended up ditching the plane in the United Kingdom last month, claiming that he wanted U.S. soldiers stationed in Europe to get a good look at it. In reality, the new jet was left behind over security concerns regarding its lesser defensive, command, and control capabilities.
With all of this in mind, if this massively expensive “gift” that taxpayers helped upgrade won’t be going to Trump’s library, where will it be going? The best guess is that he’s planning on keeping a plane gifted to him by a foreign government for personal use.
Rand Paul Successfully Kicks Off Campaign to Punish Anthony Fauci
The Senate committee that Paul chairs voted to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 8–5 along party lines Thursday to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress.
The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment during his congressional appearance last week.
“There will be repercussions for your refusal to testify,” warned Committee Chair Senator Rand Paul at the time. Paul has long sought to punish Fauci for his role in overseeing America’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Fauci testified before Congress countless times over the course of his 38-year career atop the health agency. He advised seven U.S. presidents over that time, and oversaw research on a range of issues including HIV/AIDS, Ebola, influenza, Zika, and finally, the coronavirus.
Paul charged Fauci with lying to Congress during a July 2023 hearing on Covid. Paul’s claim was never proven, and the issue was eventually wiped away via a pardon to Fauci issued by former President Joe Biden.
Last month, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer warned Fauci that the pardon would not cover his latest congressional hearing. He then posted hundreds of pages from Fauci’s pandemic-era diary to his website, summarizing the unredacted collection with a conspiratorial slant and a pink pen, which Fauci said was “aimed at embarrassing and intimidating” him.
Exactly what comes next for Fauci is not clear, even to the Republicans trying to charge him.
“There is not a lot of precedent for a lot of this, but it isn’t law so there isn’t any exact procedure that it has to follow,” Paul told CNN on Tuesday. “It’s a referral, it’s a recommendation.”
Thursday’s decision will likely be passed along to Vice President JD Vance, who as the de facto president of the Senate will need to sign off on the atypical request. It’ll then be passed to the Justice Department, which will determine on its own accord whether to bring formal charges against Fauci. But legal experts have already warned that the charges are unlikely to succeed in court.
If the DOJ moves in that direction, it will likely boil down to a long, tumultuous legal battle.
This story has been updated.
