The News
Donald Trump’s campaign clarified to Semafor that he has not yet said how he’ll vote on Florida’s abortion rights amendment, after the former president told NBC News that he believes “the six weeks is too short.”
“He has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida, he simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short,” Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, said.
The clarification came shortly after Trump, in a brief interview with NBC News’ Dasha Burns, was pressed on how he plans to vote for a ballot measure in his home state that seeks to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. If passed, it could overturn the state’s six-week ban, which was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“Well, I think the six weeks is too short, it has to be more time, and I’ve told them that I want more weeks,” Trump said. When pressed on whether he’d be voting in favor of the amendment, Trump added: “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”
Some commentators initially interpreted Trump’s remarks as a definitive “yes,” and his remarks drew criticism from some abortion opponents.
Earlier this month, Trump said that he did not want to reveal his vote yet, but predicted that the results of the referendum could go a “little more liberal way than people thought.”
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Shelby’s view
Trump keeps walking right up to the edge on the abortion question in Florida, which is one of a number of state ballot measures this year that could affect abortion access.
That’s intentional: Abortion is widely seen as a winning issue for Democrats, and it’s one that Trump has sought to neutralize by taking more moderate stances than some of his supporters want, including criticizing Florida’s six-week ban during his race against DeSantis. At the same time, he knows that taking more specific positions could risk upsetting anti-abortion supporters.
Throughout the election cycle, Trump has tried to strike a balance between defending his role in overturning Roe v. Wade while also expressing his preference for exceptions to state bans and downplaying efforts to pass a national ban. During a press conference at Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, the former president argued that abortion was no longer a “big factor” in elections — a comment that is perhaps a bit of wishcasting.
Notable
- Donald Trump’s recent positions on abortion have given some in the party permission to move left on the issue, Semafor wrote back in April.
- Anti-abortion activists have been frustrated by Trump’s comments on the issue — and Democrats have continued to attack him on the subject, representing just how precarious this is for the former president.