The Right Would Rather Talk About a Leak Than Its Roe v. Wade Win

Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

Republicans are about to win a victory decades in the making, with a Supreme Court draft opinion leaked to Politico showing a majority of justices overturning Roe v. Wade. But on the verge of achieving their movement’s 50-year goal, Republican pundits have deflected attention from the upcoming state abortion bans by calling for a probe into the opinion-leaker.

On this week’s episode of The Daily Beast’s Fever Dreams podcast, hosts Kelly Weill and Will Sommer talked about the right’s reaction to the leaked Supreme Court opinion. Its pundits have downplayed their impending abortion win, instead casting themselves as victims because the opinion leaked. Ben Shapiro, for example, claimed that the leak was meant to incite violence against the justices who are poised to overturn Roe.

“They’re calling this terrorism,” Weill said. “They’re calling this an insurrection.”

Elsewhere on the episode, the hosts discuss J.R. Majewski, an Ohio congressional candidate now on track to become the third QAnon conspiracy theorist in Congress. Majewski rose to some fame on the right after painting a Trump campaign sign on his lawn. He was an outspoken supporter of the conspiracy theory until recently, when he insisted he didn’t back Q. But pictures, including one of Majewski wearing a “Q” shirt, suggest otherwise. Weill and Sommer break down Majewski’s background, as well as a rap song he recorded about the right’s “Let’s Go Brandon” meme.

In this week’s “Fresh Hell” segment, the hosts break down 2000 Mules, the latest pseudo-documentary from pundit Dinesh D’Souza that supposedly used GPS data to “prove” the election was stolen. Spoiler alert: There are plenty of holes in his theory.

And in this week’s interview, Raw Story reporter Jordan Green looks back on his reporting on the lead-up to the Jan. 6 riot.

Listen, and subscribe, to Fever Dreams on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.

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