In an interview with Newsmax on Tuesday, former President Donald Trump made some concerning claims demonstrating why he should no longer represent the GOP in a presidential primary. In a span of 30 seconds, he both took credit for dismantling Roe v. Wade and slammed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for alienating women because he has taken too strong of a pro-life stance on recent legislation.
At the beginning of the news hit, Trump said:
First of all, I’m the one that got rid of Roe v. Wade, and everybody said that was an impossible thing to do. I put on three Supreme Court justices. Very few people have had that privilege, the honor, and they are terrific people. And they happen to believe that Roe v. Wade should not be there. It’s been now brought back to the states.
This is a bizarre way to describe what happened at the Supreme Court last June when justices ruled on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in a way that essentially tossed Roe back to the states.
BIDEN'S DEBT GAMES ARE ALL PLAYED OUTTrump can take credit for appointing Justice Neil Gorsuch for sure, thanks to then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s insistence that the American people have a say in who is chosen for the Supreme Court by way of the 2016 presidential election. Just months after Trump became president, Gorsuch took the place of the late Antonin Scalia. Conservatives also wanted a Republican president because they presumed a Supreme Court retirement was forthcoming, and they were right: Anthony Kennedy retired in 2018, and then Ruth Bader Ginsburg unexpectedly died.
Thanks to a combination of luck, timing, and prudence, Trump had the honor to choose three originalist justices, which he did. But the reversal of Roe isn’t entirely due to him, even with that accomplishment. A bad law doesn’t change just because new justices join the Supreme Court. Attorneys had to challenge just the right kind of law that would target Roe. Conservative lawmakers had been drafting heartbeat laws for this explicit purpose for years — in the hope that one would make it to the Supreme Court, which it did. Suffice it to say, the reversal of Roe was a culmination of decades of work by the entire pro-life movement: Trump got to pull the right trigger on the Supreme Court when it was time.
In the interview, Trump then pivoted to smearing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, claiming that since DeSantis signed a bill banning abortion after six weeks, he is too strict on abortion laws and will alienate women voters.
“Now DeSantis, or Ron DeSanctimonious as I call him, he came out with the six weeks,” Trump said. “Other people agree with it. And a lot of people don't.”
So, on one hand, Trump takes credit for reversing the country’s preeminent abortion ruling, and on the other hand, slams DeSantis for being too pro-life?
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINERFor most pro-life advocates, there is no such thing: There is only being pro-life or pro-abortion. Having used this issue as a tool to win over voters without being passionately pro-life himself, Trump doesn’t seem to comprehend this distinction. Trump’s ego, combined with his continual need to slam a solid, pro-life governor such as DeSantis, is one of many reasons why he should no longer be considered a viable presidential candidate.
Nicole Russell is a contributor to the Washington Examiner's Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist in Washington, D.C., who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota. She is an opinion columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.