Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) accused former President Donald Trump of looking out for himself with his recent comment on abortion limits, arguing he was focused on his “political survival.”
Trump stated in a video posted on Monday that while he was proud to take responsibility for overturning Roe v. Wade, he believed that decisions on abortion limits ought to be left up to the states. Pelosi, who said that abortion access will play a major role in the November elections, argued that Trump “either is stupid” or “he thinks the rest of us are stupid” in making his new comment.
“And then, the way the press wrote it up just cracked me up because it said, ‘Donald Trump believes that states….’ He doesn’t believe anything,” Pelosi said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “He believes in his political survival, and that’s what he is trying to accommodate. But you can’t be a little bit pro-life. You’re either there or you’re not there, and people see that.”
The former House speaker also predicted that abortion will affect the 2024 elections in the same vein that the 2022 midterm elections did, which were held a few months after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Republicans were anticipating “a red wave” in the midterm elections, but they ended up winning the House by a small majority and failed to win back the Senate majority.
Pelosi added that Florida voters are “revved up” about the topic of abortion access and that it would be “a big issue” in the campaign for residents. It comes after the Biden campaign said last week that it sees the Sunshine State as “winnable” for the 2024 election.
Many Republicans, including former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), have condemned Trump over his preference to leave abortion access up to the states. Pence, a critic of the former president since leaving the White House, said that Trump had betrayed anti-abortion voters who voted for him in 2016 and 2020.
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While Trump has opted not to focus on abortion limits in his campaign for president, the Biden administration has made the topic a priority on the campaign trail. The president’s campaign released a testimony video of a couple who was unable to abort their child on Monday, saying that Trump was responsible.
Abortion was listed as the top subject for 12% of voters ahead of the 2024 elections, and 52% said it was a “very important issue but not the most important,” according to a poll from the healthcare policy think tank KFF.