'Trying to have it both ways': GOP adviser slams Trump for dancing around 'toxic issue'
Former President Donald Trump is not acting out of any sincerely held beliefs when he gives his backing to anti-abortion activists, argued Republican Voters Against Trump's Sarah Longwell on CNN Tuesday morning.
Rather, she said, when Trump issued his video proclaiming abortion legislation was up to the states, even as he bragged about ending Roe v. Wade and sidestepping whether he'd actually sign a federal abortion ban, he was simply trying to craft a message that will stop the issue from hurting him.
"He wants it to be up to the states, conservative Republicans are not happy with that," said anchor Kate Bolduan, noting that both anti-abortion groups and supporters including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) lashed out at Trump after the statement. "What Donald Trump, though, says, Sarah, is that by allowing the states to make their decision, we have taken the abortion issue largely out of play. Has it?"
"I don't know that he's taken it largely out of play," said Longwell. "I do think that Donald Trump is unique in the way that he is not beholden to some of the same factions that other Republicans have been in the past. I mean, evangelical Christians and people for whom abortion is central to their political identity have already basically made it clear that they'll go along with whatever Donald Trump says."
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Longwell added that in the focus groups she frequently does with MAGA voters, "The fact is a lot of them are pro-choice. Many of them say things like, well, look, I'm pro-life, but I believe in a woman's right to choose."
"Donald Trump is in general election mode and he knows that this is a toxic issue for them and the best issue that Democrats have in the general election," she continued. "And so he's trying to neutralize it, and it's one of the things that Trump actually does kind of well, because no voter thinks that Trump is very pro-life.
"We hear from voters all the time that they see him as somebody who voters say this is not me, say that he is somebody who would've paid for an abortion. They don't see him as being somebody with sexual morality, like a Mike Pence would be. And so I think Donald Trump is trying to basically say, look, I'm out here to win this election, and who Donald Trump is, right, he doesn't have any real principles. This is about power for himself, and he knows that this is a tough issue for them. And so he's trying to sort of have it both ways."
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