If I were to hold my nose against the stench that permeated the CNN-certified MAGA rally and endeavor to pluck a worthwhile moment from the May 10 madness, I’d nominate Trump’s revealingly wobbly remarks about abortion.
No other first-tier issue illustrates the chasm that separates Trump and his MAGAts from the American mainstream. They believe in mandatory forced births; the mainstream does not. Abortion is the issue that can defeat the enemies of democracy in 2024.
Trump seems to understand his cult’s political predicament. The polls are clear about that. Gallup says that only 13% of Americans want a total abortion ban; 85 percent support abortion in all or most cases. The pollsters at Pew and the Public Religion Research Institute also find landslide support for abortion. The ABC News-Washington Post poll says that 66% oppose the erasure of Roe v. Wade. The right of women to control their own bodies has been ratified within the past year in referenda and elections in Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin, and blue voters were stoked by the issue in the ’22 midterms that reduced the anticipated red wave to a trickle.
Which brings us to what happened, in that CNN MAGA rally, when host Kaitlin Collins asked Trump whether, if he were president again (i.e., given a second chance to destroy this country), would he sign a bill to ban abortions nationwide? After all, the death of Roe v. Wade, thanks to his theocratic high court, has teed up that possibility. So I guess it was important to know whether his answer was yes or no.
Turns out, it was neither. Have you ever seen an obese man waddle on a tightrope?
What follows is the verbatim exchange – although, for the sake of concision and your sanity, I have omitted his frequent demagogic digressions. In the famous Watergate tapes, Richard Nixon’s profanities were cut from the transcript and replaced by the term expletives deleted. I’ll do much the same here. The deleted demagogic digressions are signaled by the acronym DDD.
Collins: “If you are re-elected and you are back in your Oval Office, and you get legislation to your desk, would you sign a federal abortion ban into law?”
Trump: “What I’ll do is negotiate, so that people are happy. But the fact that we were able – I was able, I’m so proud of it. We put three great justices on the Supreme Court. (DDD.)“
Collins: “So you – just to be clear, Mr. President, you would sign a federal abortion ban into law?”
Trump: “I want to do what’s right and we’re looking. And we want to do what’s right for everybody.”
Collins: “But what’s right?”
Trump: “But now, for the first time, the people that are pro-life have negotiating capability because you didn’t have it before.” (DDD.)
Collins: “But I think this is a really important question for you to answer because this is something all – every Republican, including those who are running against you for the nomination, are being asked about is, would you sign a federal abortion ban into law?”
Trump: “…First of all, I am honored to have done what I did, and a lot of people said – they said, in 150 years, he’s now the most consequential president because he saved so many lives. And I’m honored to have done it. (MAGATs applaud.) And because of what I’ve done, we now have a great negotiating ability. It’s what I do in life, I negotiate. We have a great negotiating ability, and I think we’re going to be able to get something done.”
Collins: “But, what do you mean ‘negotiating ability?’… Some of your allies on Capitol Hill said they want to introduce legislation when it comes to banning abortion. If they send it to your desk, would you sign it?”
Trump: “Some people are at six weeks (of pregnancy), some people are at three weeks, two weeks.”
Collins: “Where is President Trump?”
Trump: “President Trump is going to make a determination what he thinks is great for the country and what’s fair for the country, but the fact I was able to terminate Roe v. Wade after 50 years of trying – they worked for 50 years. I’ve never seen anything like it. They worked – and I was even – I was so honored to have done it. We are in a very good negotiating position right now only because of what I was able to do. (DDD.)“
Collins: “I just want to give you one more chance, though, because you did not answer whether or not you’d sign a federal abortion ban or how many weeks into pregnancy you believe abortion should be banned. Can you answer either tonight?”
Trump: “Yeah. But I’ve given the answer probably four times already.”
Collins: “Which one is it? You haven’t answered it.”
Trump: “I’m looking at a solution that’s going to work. Very complex issue for the country. You have people on both sides of an issue, but we are now in a very strong position. Pro-life people are in a strong position to make a deal that’s going to be good and going to be satisfactory for them. If you weren’t able to get rid of – you wouldn’t be having (this) discussion if you weren’t able to get rid of Roe v. Wade, which put pro-life in a dead position, a horrible position. (DDD.)”
Collins: “But that’s what (this) question is about, a federal abortion ban. You did not say yes or no to that. You did not say how many weeks.”
Trump: “It depends what – it depends what the deal is…And I’ll look at all the different ideas -“
Collins: “And a lot of people will be curious what your idea is on that.”
Trump: “And I’ll make the – I’ll make the right decision.”
Can this guy waffle with the best of ’em, or what? By my count, Collins asked him five times whether he’d impose forced-birth on every American woman, and five times he refused to answer. Some analysts have interpreted those exchanges as evidence that he indeed would sign a ban (if it were ever to pass Congress) as a sop to anti-abortion extremists. But I have a different take.
He’s waffling because he knows that if he were to campaign unequivocally for a total ban, he’d piss off mainstream voters – especially suburban women in key swing states like Pennsylvania – and imperil his prospects for a 2024 Restoration.
Did you catch when he said that abortion is a “very complex issue for the country”? No kidding, pal. Even in red Nebraska, 54% of the citizenry believes that abortion should be legal in most or all cases, and only 11% want a total ban. Mindful of that sentiment, a Republican state senator has effectively blocked legislative moves for a near-total statewide ban. And the same thing happened the other day in red South Carolina, where three Republican state senators teamed up with two colleagues to bock a near-total statewide ban; in the words of rebellious State Sen. Katrina Shealy, “Women and their doctors and their husbands or partners should be making these decisions. One hundred seventy legislators in the state of South Carolina don’t need to be making these choices.”
My take: It has even penetrated Trump’s peabrain that forced-birth zealotry could be political suicide. That’s why he bobbed and weaved on the ban question.
But if I’m wrong about this, if he does indeed plan to stump as an extremist, to parade his pride about erasing Roe and further alienate mainstream voters, then fine by me. Go for it, loser.
Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net and is distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, June 15, 2023
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