Speaker Emirita Nancy Pelosi had some very choice words on Donald Trump’s cowardly statement on abortion this week. Personally, I think Fox News’ Jessica Tarlov got it exactly right when she said that Trump was trying to have it both ways, taking credit for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, then avoiding responsibility for actions taken by the states afterward. I would add that by saying, “The states will determine” abortion rights, Trump was very much leaving open the suggestion that he’d vote for any federal abortion ban Congress sends him, without having the courage to actually say so.
Pelosi got it 100%. Not just Trump’s cowardly duplicity but also how abortion rights are an integral part of democracy.
She blasted Trump as only Pelosi can. She said, “So when – what’s his name? – said what he said yesterday, he is stupid or he thinks the rest of us are stupid because he takes great pride in overturning Roe v. Wade.” Her next comments implied she thinks both are true.
PELOSI: The way the press wrote it up just cracked me up because it said, ‘Donald Trump believes that’ -- he doesn't believe anything. He believes in his political survival, and that's what he is trying to accommodate. But you can't be a little bit pro-life. You are there or you're not there, and people see that.
So, he may have outsmarted -- well, I hate to say outsmarted because, what? Doesn't seem to apply. but why would the press say 'he believes?' He doesn't believe anything.
Pelosi went on to predict that abortion rights will be instrumental in a Democratic victory in November. She credited abortion as well as climate, guns and democracy for stopping the predicted big red wave in 2022. She pointed out that many said she was “so wrong” to make Roe v. Wade an issue then, that it was “in the rearview mirror” and people wouldn’t care. “They do. It’s a democracy issue, it’s kitchen table issue for families to make their decisions about this,” she said. “It's about respect for women, oh my gosh, respect for women. So, it’s a big deal.”
She didn’t want to go so far as to predict what will happen in Florida, where abortion rights are on the ballot, but she felt certain they will be a a deciding factor, overall. “When we won in '18, people said, ‘Oh, aren't you lucky that health care was such an important issue in the campaign?’ I said we weren't lucky. We made our own luck. we had 10,000 events pointing out what the Affordable Care Act did.”
Democrats may not win in some red states where abortion is not on the ballot, Pelosi added, “But it causes a drumbeat across the country.”
