Susan Collins Quietly Casts Anti-Abortion Vote Ahead of Election

The Senate advanced the nomination of Judge Matthew R. Byrne, a longtime member of the Federalist Society and an anti-abortion advocate, by a vote of 47–46. The tie-breaking vote: Maine Senator Susan Collins.

Donald Trump nominated Byrne for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. The upper chamber invoked cloture on Byrne’s nomination Monday, ending debate over the judge’s qualifications for the federal gig and proceeding toward a floor vote.

Byrne’s track record on women’s reproductive health is concerning. The Indiana native has several affiliations with anti-abortion groups, including Ohio Right to Life, Cincinnati Right to Life, Warren County Right to Life, the Center for Christian Virtue, and the Federalist Society.

Byrne elaborated on his beliefs in a 2020 judicial candidate survey, noting that he opposed abortion for any reason other than to protect the life of the mother, without any exceptions for rape or incest. He also believed the phrase “life of the mother” should be “strictly defined so as to avoid creating loopholes.”

When pressed over the summer to explain his rationale by the Senate Judiciary Committee, Byrne claimed that it would be “inappropriate for me to opine on this issue as your question asks me to comment on a matter of political controversy,” citing restrictions in the Code of Conduct for United States Judges as they relate to impartiality and political neutrality.

Byrne also stood in the way of the will of Ohio voters in 2023. He was the sole figure on the seven-judge Ohio Supreme Court who refused to dismiss a case involving the legislature’s six-week abortion ban, even after abortion was enshrined in the Ohio Constitution following a statewide voter referendum.

Collins too has a spotted history when it comes to women’s reproductive rights. The Maine Republican is in a vulnerable midterm position, but she has attempted to elevate her odds in the blue-leaning state by branding herself as an abortion rights proponent.

She has repeatedly lamented the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, writing in a statement at the time that it was an “ill-considered action.”

But actions speak louder than words: Collins had voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the high court in 2018. At the time, she told 60 Minutes she was “very comfortable that I’ve made the right decision.” Kavanaugh would ultimately side with the majority in the court’s 5–4 decision to overturn the abortion precedent.

President Donald Trump majorly crashed out Tuesday after the Supreme Court killed his efforts to restrict mail-in voting ahead of the midterm elections. 

In a lengthy tirade on Truth Social, Trump raged against “another bad decision” from the Supreme Court. 

“It is a big loss for Republicans, and America itself, and makes cheating by the Radical Left ‘Dumocrats,’ on Mail-In Ballots, a much easier thing to do—And now they have an open field to do so!” Trump wrote. “The Supreme Court has really let our Country down!”

The president continued to rant about the Supreme Court’s previous decisions to undo his disastrous “Liberation Day” tariffs and block his efforts to scrap birthright citizenship. 

“The damage done to America is incalculable, and they know this, just as everyone else does—It is an irreparable and unrecoverable harm!” Trump wrote. “The Court’s inability and unwillingness to do the right thing for our Country will go down, in a very negative way, in the annals of History.”

Trump claimed that certain justices were “petrified of these craved and depraved Democrats” and had been “cajoled by the Radical Left.”

“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves, a Court that is costing the United  States Trillions of Dollars with shockingly bad rulings that are of such magnitude that it won’t be easily possible for our Country to recover or heal,” Trump wrote, referring to Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, and Neil Gorsuch, all of whom Trump saw appointed to the bench. 

Kavanaugh wrote a brief concurring opinion, noting that “there is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service’s statutory authority.” But he said that “applying the rule in the 2026 elections would be arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act because state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections.”

Trump claimed that “it is not easy for me to write this criticism of the United States Supreme Court—it will likely cost me dearly for years to come—but I feel it my obligation and duty, as President, to do so for the America we love!” 

Of course, it is easy for the president, who has spent months railing against the Supreme Court, including its conservative justices. 

What would you think if your senator went nearly 100 days without speaking publicly? 

It’s been over three months since we have heard Senator Mitch McConnell’s voice, after he was found unconscious in his D.C. home in June and spent all summer collecting a paycheck while offering few updates on his health. His team kept that streak going after he finally returned to Capitol Hill on Monday for a vote, ensuring he appeared in a corridor in which press is banned from recording video—probably a strategic move given that McConnell still does not look lucid or coherent. Of course,  that would be easier to determine if he could just address the public—one of the most basic tasks of his job. 

“Reporters aren’t allowed to film in the hallways outside the Senate chamber, which is where this pic is, except for at weekly leadership press conferences held here,” HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery wrote Tuesday on X. “In other words, you can lose your credentials over this.… My best guess is his staff is avoiding all press in the halls and using more private ways into and out of the building.” 

Various GOP colleagues have claimed to have spoken to McConnell since June. But while rumors of his demise swirled, he released just two photos of himself and his wife, along with two press statements, none of which offered evidence that his language and cognition were adequate—something you might worry about with an 80-year old senator with years of health problems who was found passed out on the floor.

McConnell did apparently speak off camera. CNN’s Manu Raju described him as looking “frailer and his voice slower.” 

“I must admit, after two years, two decades, actually dodging your questions, I wasn’t sure how many of you would be here today, but I’m glad to see you,” the longtime senator reportedly said. “Time to get back to work, finish the job for this Congress. I’m here to work on the farm bill.… As I think you know, I have an ongoing issue in NATO and backing up our good friends who are totally in the fight against the Russians.” He didn’t take any questions. 

McConnell does look frail and spaced-out in the few videos we have of him.

McConnell’s speechless return was even panned by the far right. 

“Absolutely wild that after 3 months of being near death, one of the first things Mitch McConnell says he’ll now focus on is pushing for more war in Ukraine,” hard-line MAGA commentator DC Draino wrote. “Not lowering prices for middle class Americans. Not deporting illegals. Nope, he wants more foreign wars. Evil man.”

Alabama Senator Katie Britt praised President Donald Trump’s tariffs in public, but behind closed doors, the Republican lawmaker begged for relief, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

In an email sent to the U.S. trade representative in April 2025, shortly after Trump announced his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs, Stephen Newton, the legislative director for Britt’s office, requested tariff “exclusions” for “specific Alabama manufacturers.”

Those companies included TNT Fireworks, which could not source fireworks of the same “quality and safety” as those produced in China; Novelis, an aluminum company that relies on imports from Canada, South Korea, and Brazil and could no longer complete construction on a new plant in Alabama; Kronospan, a wood panel maker that required “highly specialized equipment that is not available from domestic manufacturers;” and Airbus, the aircraft manufacturer, which could no longer afford to complete production on its third final assembly line in Mobile.

It’s not clear that any of these companies received exemptions, as the USTR “does not have an exemption process at this time,” the agency told Journal.

But months later, Britt struck a different tone in a social media post following the Supreme Court’s decision to undo Trump’s disastrous tariffs.

“What the media won’t tell you is that President Trump’s tariffs work, and that’s why even the Biden Administration left them in place,” Britt wrote on X.

If there’s that much daylight between Britt’s public-facing comments and her actual politicking, one has to wonder what other hard-line Trump administration policies the MAGA mouthpiece secretly knows are bullshit? And how many other Republicans feel the same?

President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who serves as a special envoy for peace in the Trump administration, has made billions of dollars for his investment firm from donors in the Middle East at the same time.

The New Yorker reports that during peace negotiations with Iran earlier this year, Kushner managed to raise $5 billion for his group, Affinity Partners. When America’s attacks on Iran restarted, some observers became suspicious that Kushner’s business activities were linked to his work for the Trump administration.

“My sense is that he thinks he was killing two birds with one stone—he was helping the Arabs defeat the Iranians, and he wanted to be paid for it,” an unnamed American source with extensive ties to leaders in the Middle East told the magazine.

With the U.S. left with no good options as Iran maintains control of the Strait of Hormuz, Kushner and Trump’s other special envoy Steve Witkoff haven’t been active in peace talks. The latest round of negotiations over the summer were led by Vice President JD Vance. The leaders of Arab Gulf states are reportedly disappointed in Kushner for failing to end the war.

“They were investing money in him. They thought that would bring them some influence that would protect them, and it did the opposite,” a former senior U.S. official told The New Yorker. “Their whole business model was stability. And now it’s gone.”

Kushner’s firm was built off of investments in and from the Middle East. Using money from Saudi Arabia, Affinity put $110 million into the car-leasing Shlomo Group, and nearly $300 million into Phoenix Financial, an insurance company. Both are Israeli companies, according to The New Yorker.

All of this raises massive conflict of interest concerns. When Kushner jets off to Pakistan or Qatar, is he seeking the best outcomes for the American people or for his investment firm? Are Israel and the Gulf states trying to coerce him into specific outcomes by dangling lucrative business deals? Kushner has already caused upheaval in Albania thanks to his real estate project there. What if he puts the U.S. at risk trying to make a buck in the Middle East amid a quagmire with Iran?