Walking right into the abortion trap on MSNBC’s Chris Mathews “Hardball,” GOP front-runner real estate mogul Donald Trump got caught in the sticky-wicket of abortion. Running in the GOP primaries forces GOP candidates to pledge allegiance on the pro-life issue to religious and social conservatives, so confused, so misguided and so hypocritical on abortion it defies imagination. With the Supreme Court’s 1973 landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade, the federal government guaranteed the legality of abortion across state lines. Roe v. Wade prohibits local communities and states from punishing doctors and patients for getting abortions. Instead of stating his real view, Trump walked a flimsy abortion tightrope and fell on his head. “Should abortion be punished,” asked Mathews, setting Trump up in a classic liberal trap over the impractical issue of ending Roe v. Wade.
Religious and social conservatives heralding abortion as “murder-of-the-unborn-child also know that it’s preposterous to charge doctors and patients with a crime for exercising federal abortion rights. Whether despised by religious or social conservatives or not, no rational person can possibly think charging doctors and patients with a crime make any sense. “Look, in certain parts of the Republican Party, conservative Republicans would say, ‘Yes, they should,’” said Trump answering Matthews’ question of whether there should be punishment if abortion were made illegal. Since Roe v. Wade is the law of the land, Trump shouldn’t have fallen for Matthews’ obvious hypothetical. Trump pointed out that within the “holier-than-thou” conservative community, pro-life fanatics would like to overturn Roe v. Wade and make abortion illegal for doctors and patients.
Realizing he’d been had by Matthews, Trump’s campaign walked back his statements, clearly taken out-of-context. “If Congress were to pass legislation making abortion illegal and the federal courts upheld this legislation, or any state were permitted to ban abortion under state and federal law, the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible,” Trump said in a statement. What’s most ironic is that Trump, of all the remaining GOP candidates, is more flexible on abortion or other issues like gay marriage than other candidates. Knowing this, Matthews toyed with Trump, realizing the illogical and untenable position of the pro-life movement. Trump’s suggestion that women get punished for hypothetically illegal abortions prompted more piling on by GOP and Democratic presidential candidates.
Democratic front-runner former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton ripped into Trump. “Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse,” said Hillary, outraged by Trump’s remarks to Matthews. Calling Trump’s remarks “completely out of touch with the pro-life movement,” March for Life Education and Defense Fund President Jeanne Mancini exposed her incredible naivety when it comes to the pro-life movement.. “No pro-lifer would ever want to punish a woman who has chose abortion. This is against the very nature of what we are about,” said Mancini, showing she knows nothing about federal, state and local laws before Roe v. Wade. If Roe v. Wade were reversed by her pro-life movement, banning the practice of abortion in the United States, of course physicians and patients would be subject to local, state and federal laws, including any punishment that would go with breaking laws.
Trump’s comments simply said if you allow pro-life zealots to reverse Roe v. Wade, you’d be dealing with laws against abortions, carrying penalties for lawbreakers. Calling Trump’s clarification a “flip-flop” is purely political, where various groups continue to attack the GOP front-runner as he gets closer to wrapping up the GOP nomination. Charging Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski with battery for ushering away a reporter getting too close to his boss also shows the highly charged political atmosphere trying to discredit Trump’s campaign. Saturation coverage by 24/7 of Trump’s abortion remarks and Lewandowski’s bogus arrest for “battery” are all designed to undermine the Trump campaign. Listening to cable news hosts and pundits make a criminal case of Lewandowki shows the extent of the network’s bias against the Trump campaign.
Matthews’ got the better of Trump on the abortion issue, highlighting, for the right and left, the absurdity of changing any laws protecting women’s reproductive rights. Of all the GOP candidates, past and present, running for president, Trump has the most liberal views on abortion because he sees so many other issues taking precedence, like national security and the economy. “I don’t have great respect for her,” said Trump, regarding former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields filing battery charges against Lewandowski. “I think for her to do what she did to this man or what he did is outrageous, is outrageous,” said Trump, mirroring the same view of legal experts, like Fox News Judge Andrew Napolitano, who thinks the case will get tossed out. Whether Trump’s remarks about abortion or Lewandowki’s temporary legal problems, it’s all calculated political sabotage.
