Texas captured national attention again this week after the Justice Department sued the state over its new law outlawing abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The Supreme Court declined to block the statute last Wednesday, prompting the Biden administration to mount a “whole-of-government effort” to stop it.
Here are the top quotes of the week.
“The obvious and expressly acknowledged intention of this statutory scheme is to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights by thwarting judicial review for as long as possible.”
— Attorney General Merrick Garland on Texas’s abortion law after he announced the Department of Justice is suing the state
“The most precious freedom is life itself. Texas passed a law that ensures that the life of every child with a heartbeat will be spared from the ravages of abortion. Unfortunately, President Biden and his Administration are more interested in changing the national narrative from their disastrous Afghanistan evacuation and reckless open border policies instead of protecting the innocent unborn. We are confident that the courts will uphold and protect that right to life.”
— Renae Eze, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s press secretary, responding to the DOJ lawsuit
“We will be going back into Afghanistan. We’ll have to because the threat will be so large.”
— Sen. Lindsey Graham tells the BBC what he fears about the United States’s withdrawal from Afghanistan
“Surprise surprise — Fauci lied again. And I was right about his agency funding novel Coronavirus research at Wuhan.”
— Sen. Rand Paul reacts after the Intercept obtained documents detailing the work of the EcoHealth Alliance at the Wuhan lab
“Sexual assault is about the abuse of power, and sexual assault is about asserting control over another person, and the ease with which these men seek to do that to other people is atrocious.”
— Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez likens Republicans’ abortion law in Texas to “rape culture.”
“Congratulations on your victory over those who hate for the Laws of All-Mighty God to be supreme on the land. I pray to Allah that He helps you implement Shariah Law full, correctly and fairly.”
— Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan writes to the Taliban from his prison cell, cheering the Taliban’s resurgence
“Dr. Fauci said that if hospitals get any more overcrowded, they’re going to have to make some very tough choices about who gets an ICU bed. That choice doesn’t seem so tough to me. ‘Vaccinated person having a heart attack? Yes, come right on in — we’ll take care of you. Unvaccinated guy who gobbled horse goo? Rest in peace, wheezy.'”
— Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel suggests unvaccinated people aren’t as worthy of ICU beds
“Now is not the time for a long assessment of the events leading up to my departure — I will address them in detail in the near future. But I must now address baseless allegations that as I left Kabul I took with me millions of dollars belonging to the Afghan people. These charges are completely and categorically false.”
— Deposed Afghan President Ashraf Ghani talks about his fleeing from Kabul as the Taliban swept in
“Do you buy a sliced melon or an intact melon? Of course the intact one. A woman without hijab is like a sliced melon.”
— An unnamed Taliban member is overheard on film justifying why women must wear a hijab
“By the way, of course, I sleep with a NEA member every night.”
— President Joe Biden makes a strained joke, alluding to his wife while paying tribute to teachers unions
“It would be such an honor to meet the real President of the United States of America, President Trump. I love you and America loves you.”
— Shana Chappell, the Gold Star mother of 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, invites former President Donald Trump to her son’s funeral
“The Taliban have been cooperative in facilitating the departure of American citizens and lawful permanent residents on charter flights from [Hamid Karzai International Airport]. They have shown flexibility, and they have been businesslike and professional in our dealings with them in this effort. This is a positive first step.”
— National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne praises the Taliban’s cooperation with the departure of U.S. citizens and lawful residents via a charter flight
“Your decision is disappointing but understandable given the need to distract from a news cycle that has you mired in multiple self-inflicted crises and plummeting poll numbers, including a rise in new COVID cases, a dismal jobs report, inflation, record amount of drugs coming across the southern border, and, of course, the chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan that has left hundreds of Americans and thousands of Afghan allies stranded under Taliban rule.”
— Former senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway responds after Biden asked for multiple members of military academies’ advisory boards to resign
“If only we had Robert E. Lee to command our troops in Afghanistan, that disaster would have ended in a complete and total victory many years ago.”
— Trump decries the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, Virginia
