7 Things: January 6 committee’s surprise witness’ bombshell quickly blows up in their face, Alabama’s abortion rules are becoming more clear and more …

7. Buttigieg will be in Birmingham to discuss infrastructure

• U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg will travel to Birmingham tomorrow to discuss and promote infrastructure plans, according to the Department of Transportation. The trip will focus on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 projects.

• According to the announcement from the department, Buttigieg will “highlight a new program under the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that will help people in Alabama get to work, school, and services they need quicker and more affordably.”

6. Plan B still legal in Alabama

• While the federal government is seeking to expand access to abortion and abortion medication, it is finding some issues along the way. Meanwhile, the abortion ban in Alabama has taken effect. Still, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall clarified that this ban did not apply to emergency contraceptives such as the “morning-after pill.”

• The issue was brought up based on how Alabama defined when pregnancy began. The Guttmacher Institute said Alabama defined pregnancy as beginning at fertilization. Marshall’s office advised that abortion pills that can be taken to end a pregnancy would not be permitted under the law, but ones such as Plan B and Ella that prevent implantation and pregnancy were still legal.

5. Abortion outlawed in Tennessee, Texas abortion ban blocked

• In Tennessee, the law that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy will be allowed to take effect after the 6^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals removed the block on the legislation. Similar laws have been allowed to take effect in Alabama, South Carolina and Ohio.

• However, the challenge over Texas’ abortion ban continues as a restraining order has been placed on the ban that would make nearly all abortions illegal. In the state, though, the law that prohibits abortions after six weeks of pregnancy has already taken effect. The Supreme Court cleared the way for these laws to go into effect, and the desperation of pro-abortion activists will likely be beaten back as well.

 4. Voter who caused tie in Senate District 27 wasn’t registered until May 25; ALGOP doesn’t care

• In State Senate District 27, Patsy Kenney claimed that her provisional ballot was incorrectly not counted and they were wrongly excluded from voting in the May 24 primary election. Kenney’s claim caused the race to be called a tie. However, it’s now been revealed that Kenney was not a registered voter until May 25.

• Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill said, “The law says that was a ballot that should not count because it was cast by a voter who was ineligible to cast it.” Kenney registered to vote on the day of the election at her polling location, but voters have to be registered previous to the election to be eligible to vote. Despite this, the decision to decide the race by coin flip will stay, and Merrill will likely conduct the coin flip next week.

3. Alabama abortion ban is incomplete

• Former U.S. Attorney General Jay Town argued that the “Alabama Human Life Protection Act” that banned abortion in the state needed more work. He stated, “The legislature is really going to have to consider everything they have done. There’s so many unintended consequences, especially when you pass a law like they did.”

• Town questioned if people could be charged for going across state lines to get an abortion and said, “[T]he law as it is right now…is still incomplete. Do we really want to prosecute someone for letting someone borrow their car, or filling up their gas tank so they can drive to wherever? And if we don’t, then we need to carve that out. If we do, then leave the law as it is right now.”

2. Trump allegedly acted out on January 6, including shoving Secret Service

• Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson gave an allegedly detailed account of former President Donald Trump’s behavior and actions on January 6, 2021, during the riot at the U.S. Capitol to the House committee investigating the issue. Hutchinson claimed that three days before the riot, White House counsel Pat Cipollone “had approached me knowing that Mark [Meadows] had raised the prospect of going to the Capitol on Jan. 6. Mr. Cipollone had a brief private conversation where he said to me, ‘we need to make sure this doesn’t happen, this would be legally a terrible idea for us.'”

• Hutchinson claimed that Trump also wanted to go to the Capitol during the riot and even demanded, “Let my people in.” She added that she was told Trump was informed he couldn’t go to the Capitol while in the presidential limo, so he attempted to “grab at the steering wheel” and “lung[ed]” at Secret Service.

1. Not so fast, January 6 committee

• While the media praised Hutchinson for her testimony and declared her super-duper-credible, it turns out that her biggest bombshell has a couple of problems with the tale. Cassidy’s allegations are absurd and secondhand. She was reportedly told that an infuriated Trump reached to grab the wheel of the vehicle carrying him, was told to remove his hand, and attempted to assault the Secret Service agent driving him, but the Secret Service is ready to dispute this under oath.

• NBC News chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander tweeted, “A source close to the Secret Service tells me both Bobby Engel, the lead agent, and the presidential limousine/SUV driver are prepared to testify under oath that neither man was assaulted and that Mr. Trump never lunged for the steering wheel.” This is quite a blow to the credibility of the January 6 committee because they called an impromptu meeting after they claimed they had new information. Now that the most inflammatory part of Meadow’s aide’s testimony is in doubt, it makes the rest of it questionable.