Closing summary
President Joe Biden is in Israel, where he reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to one of its top allies. Meanwhile, back home, another month of sky-high inflation data rocked the Democratic leadership and caused a key senator to warn he may not be on board for big spending bills as long as prices keep increasing.
Here’s what else happened today:
- Biden saw support for his re-election plummet in a poll that said a mere 18 percent of respondents would back him in 2024.
- A suspect was arrested in the case of a girl who had to travel from Ohio to Indiana for an abortion after being raped, refuting the doubts of Ohio’s Republican attorney general.
- The main Senate candidates in Georgia brought in boatloads of money last quarter, though Democrat Raphael Warnock raised the most.
- Michigan’s Democratic governor moved to stop other states from trying to arrest people who travel there for abortions.
- The chair of the January 6 committee dropped more hints of its cooperation with the department of justice, which could potentially charge former president Donald Trump with a crime.
Shortly after the supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, the story of a 10-year-old girl who was forced to travel from Ohio to neighboring Indiana for an abortion after being raped went viral.
Ohio was one of the states whose law greatly restricting access to abortions took effect after the court ruling, and news of the girl’s ordeal sparked outrage over its consequences. However, the story had its doubters, chief among them the state’s Republican attorney general Dave Yost, whom the Columbus Dispatch reports gave interviews questioning whether the story happened at all.
It did indeed, the Dispatch reported today, with police arresting a 27-year-old man who confessed to twice raping the child. From their story:
Gershon Fuentes, 27, whose last known address was an apartment on Columbus’ Northwest Side, was arrested Tuesday after police say he confessed to raping the child on at least two occasions. He’s since been charged with rape, a felony of the first degree in Ohio.
Columbus police were made aware of the girl’s pregnancy through a referral by Franklin County Children Services that was made by her mother on June 22, Det. Jeffrey Huhn testified Wednesday morning at Fuentes’ arraignment. On June 30, the girl underwent a medical abortion in Indianapolis, Huhn said.
While Yost had plenty to say when the story first broke, the Dispatch reported he kept his comments following the arrest brief:
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost questioned the validity of the account during an appearance on Fox News this week.
Yost, a Republican, told Fox News host Jesse Watters that his office had not heard “a whisper” of a report being filed for the 10-year-old victim.
“We have regular contact with prosecutors and local police and sheriffs — not a whisper anywhere,” Yost said on the show.
Yost doubled down on that in an interview with the USA TODAY Network Ohio bureau on Tuesday, saying that the more time passed before confirmation made it “more likely that this is a fabrication.”
“I know the cops and prosecutors in this state,” Yost said. “There’s not one of them that wouldn’t be turning over every rock, looking for this guy and they would have charged him. They wouldn’t leave him loose on the streets ... I’m not saying it could not have happened. What I’m saying to you is there is not a damn scintilla of evidence.”
On Wednesday, once news of the arraignment of the Columbus man accused in the child’s rape came, Yost issued a single sentence statement:
“We rejoice anytime a child rapist is taken off the streets.”
