Even those who’ve come to expect weird rhetoric from Donald Trump were surprised yesterday when the former president confirmed — out loud, on camera, and on the record — that he was “looking at” possible restrictions on contraception.
Since we discussed this in some detail yesterday, it seemed only fair to do a follow-up item, noting that he soon after said the opposite, which made the whole thing even more curious.
To briefly recap, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee sat down with Jon Delano, a political analyst for KDKA in Pittsburgh, who asked an entirely straightforward and unambiguous question: “Do you support any restrictions on a person’s right to contraception?”
Instead of saying, “Of course not,” Trump replied, “We’re looking at that.”
Pressed further on the possibility of some states banning forms of birth control, the former president wouldn’t answer directly, but claimed he and his team would release more information about his secret-for-now position “within a week or so.”
For Democrats eager to paint the former president as a far-right radical — on reproductive rights, among other issues — the on-camera comments were an unexpected gift. That said, just as the public started to learn of Trump’s stated position, the GOP candidate pushed back in the opposite direction by way of his social media platform. This was the entirety of his online message:
“I HAVE NEVER, AND WILL NEVER ADVOCATE IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS ON BIRTH CONTROL, or other contraceptives. This is a Democrat fabricated lie, MISINFORMATION/DISINFORMATION, because they have nothing else to run on except FAILURE, POVERTY, AND DEATH. I DO NOT SUPPORT A BAN ON BIRTH CONTROL, AND NEITHER WILL THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!”
To be sure, it’s easy to understand why Trump was so eager to appear on the side of the American mainstream. Not only is contraception use common, but the latest national survey from KFF, released in March, found that one in five adults believes the right to contraception is now in danger.
With data like this in mind, it’s not surprising that the presumptive GOP nominee published a hysterical message online, rejecting the very idea of birth control restrictions.
But that leaves us with a question with no obvious answer: If Trump is all-caps certain that he’s against contraception restrictions, why didn’t he just say so during his interview with KDKA?
His online message called the controversy “a Democrat fabricated lie,” but all Democrats did was quote Trump and promote his on-air comments. He wasn’t taken out of context; there were no deceptive edits; the video was not manipulated to make the Republican look bad; and his critics didn’t need to make anything up. So what happened? Trump was asked, “Do you support any restrictions on a person’s right to contraception?” He said, “We’re looking at that.” In the next breath, he went on say, “I’m going to have a policy on that very shortly and I think it’s something that you’ll find interesting.” If the former president’s online tirade was right, and he will “never advocate imposing restrictions on birth control,” why not just say so? We’ll probably never know for sure, but my best guess is that he got confused and forgot what “contraception” means. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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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