Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on Tuesday engaged in a debate over abortion, an issues where polls indicate the US Vice President holds a political advantage. Meanwhile, the former President tried distance himself from his VP candidate JD Vance’s position on the key issue.
Trump falsely claimed that both Republicans and Democrats supported the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that abolished constitutional protection for abortion and returned the matter to the states. Democrats have always backed the right to an abortion under the constitution.
“I did a great service in doing it. It took courage to do it,” Trump said.
Debate moderator Linsey Davis of ABC News refuted Trump’s claim that certain states permit babies to be aborted after birth.
“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,” she asserted.
Referring to states that have enacted restrictive prohibitions, Harris expressed her astonishment at Trump’s claim that the subject of abortion becoming a matter of states’ rights was a popular outcome.
“This is what people wanted?” the US VP asked. “People being denied care in an emergency room because healthcare providers are being afraid of being hauled off to jail?”
Hitting back at Trump’s assertion, she said, “Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion. That is not happening.”
She claimed that Trump would sign a national abortion ban if he comes back to the power.
When asked whether he would veto a federal abortion ban if Congress passed one, Trump responded in the negative. “I’m not signing a ban,” he stated, mentioning that the issue is with the states.
Vance speaks out as Trump throws him under the bus
In an attempt to disassociate himself from JD Vance’s assertion that the previous president would veto a nationwide abortion ban, Trump claimed that his running mate wasn’t speaking for him at the time and that he hadn’t discussed the matter with the Ohio Senator.
“Well, I didn’t discuss it with JD, in all fairness,” Trump responded to his running mate’s claim. “And I don’t mind if he has a certain view, but I don’t think he was speaking for me.”
On August 25, Vance told NBC News that Trump “explicitly” informed him that he would veto a law prohibiting abortion.
When ABC News asked whether Trump supported national restrictions on abortion, the Ohio Senator said, “I think the president’s been very clear that he doesn’t want a national abortion ban.”
He mentioned that Trump finds the question somewhat a “little bit ridiculous” because the legislation will “never actually happen”.
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“And why he would veto it or not veto it when he says very explicitly that he doesn’t support a national abortion ban and he wants these policies to be made by the states,” Vance said.
He went on to target Harris, calling her debate rhetoric “empty”.
“You had Kamala Harris effectively echoing platitude after platitude after platitude. The American people can’t pay their grocery bills on platitudes.”
According to him, Harris spoke a lot but offered very little concrete advice on how to cut grocery costs, protect the border, and lessen the cost of housing in the US.
