Donald Trump's abortion flip-flop is nothing like Kamala Harris' policy evolutions

Sep. 3, 2024, 7:20 PM EDT

By Claire McCaskill and Allison Detzel

This is an adapted excerpt from the Sept. 3 episode of “Morning Joe.”

Donald Trump now says he will vote no on a Florida ballot measure that would repeal the state’s six-week abortion ban, just 24 hours after he appeared to indicate he would vote in favor of the measure.

Trump had been critical of the state’s ban in an interview with NBC News. When asked how he would vote on the amendment, he said, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”

If there’s one subject that voters are unforgiving about flip-flopping on, it’s reproductive rights. They wonder, well, what’s changed? Why did you destroy Roe v. Wade, and then, all of a sudden, say abortion should be legal for longer than six weeks? That makes no sense to voters.

If there’s one subject that voters are unforgiving about flip-flopping on, it’s reproductive rights.

Vice President Kamala Harris has come under criticism for her so-called flip-flopping, telling CNN she wouldn’t ban fracking if elected president, a change from her previous position on the issue when she ran for president back in 2019.

Unlike Trump’s views on abortion, that policy change makes sense. There’s a situation where the more we produce domestically, the less carbon goes into the air — because most other countries don’t produce energy as efficiently and as carefully as we do. So, there is some rationale for her coming more to the center on an issue like that.

I’m also so sick of this talking point about the policies — the idea that if Trump focuses on his policy positions, then everything will be OK for the Republicans. If their policies are truly so popular, somebody needs to explain to me why so many Democratic Senate candidates are running ahead of their opponents. It’s the Democrats who seem to have the winning policy positions.

So, for everyone who thinks that if Trump just stuck to his policies, then all the Republicans’ issues would be solved — that’s just not the case.

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