Several years ago, Michael Kinsley famously wrote, “A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth — some obvious truth he isn’t supposed to say.” This came to mind last week, when Donald Trump accidentally said what he was thinking about abortion policy in his adopted home state of Florida.
It was in April 2023 when Republican policymakers in the state created a controversial and unpopular six-week abortion ban. This year, voters in the Sunshine State will decide whether to undo that policy with Amendment 4 — a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in Florida’s state constitution.
For months, the former president said very little about the measure, but in an interview with NBC News last week, Trump appeared to speak his mind. The six-week limit, the GOP nominee said, is “too short,” adding that Floridians need “more time.” Asked how he’d vote on Amendment 4, the Republican said, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”
The unscripted, on-the-record comments, seemingly reflecting Trump’s actual beliefs, did not go unnoticed on the right. On the contrary, parts of the former president’s far-right base wasted little time slamming his apparent support for the abortion-rights ballot measure and criticisms of abortion restrictions that his own party championed.
And so, as my MSNBC colleague Clarissa-Jan Lim noted, the GOP candidate reversed course a day later.
Donald Trump said on Friday he will vote against Florida’s abortion rights ballot amendment after all, as he tries to stem the backlash from anti-abortion Republicans for having suggested earlier that he might support the measure in November.
There was a degree of irony to the circumstances: One of Trump’s principal talking points last week was accusing Vice President Kamala Harris of “flip-flopping.” It was against this backdrop that the GOP nominee struggled — again — to keep his story straight on a key issue for millions of voters.
Complicating matters, Trump said exactly what Democrats wanted him to say.
“Donald Trump just made his position on abortion very clear: He will vote to uphold an abortion ban so extreme it applies before many women even know they are pregnant,” Harris said in a written statement. “Trump proudly brags about the role that he played in overturning Roe v. Wade and said there should be punishment for women who have an abortion. So, of course he thinks it’s a ‘beautiful thing’ that women in Florida and across the country are being turned away from emergency rooms, face life-threatening situations, and are forced to travel hundreds of miles for the care they need.” Let’s not forget that Trump, as part of his 2024 candidacy, has insisted that if he returns to the White House, he won’t support an abortion ban. But it’s awfully tough for a candidate to say he opposes abortion bans while announcing his support for an abortion ban. What’s more, this offers Democrats another opportunity to tell the electorate that when push comes to shove, Trump will back down under pressure from the far-right and do what conservatives tell him to do. If Republicans are hoping to see this story fade in the election’s home stretch, they’re probably going to be disappointed.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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