Matt Smith of WISN-TV in Milwaukee caught up with Gail Ruzicka, one of the RNC platform committee members. She was not at all pleased with what had happened with this year's platform. Not only are the Republicans trying to pretend that they aren't 100% anti-abortion, but they aren't even allowing their own people to bring it up behind closed doors. She was not alone in her displeasure:
The platform, released after a closed meeting of Republican National Committee party officials Monday in Milwaukee's Baird Center, promotes nationalism, is less socially conservative on the issue of abortion access, and promotes new voting restrictions at a time when the GOP is pushing a conflicting message to their party faithful.
The way the platform was crafted and approved angered some committee members focused on pursuing a more aggressive policy on abortion access, who told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel debate was discouraged more than had been the case in previous platform draftings.
"Normally, people fly in and they're working for two or three days on the platform, and it's great. This time, it was a very controlled thing. And sadly, there was no opportunity for the actual delegates to impact the platform," Kris Ullman, president of anti-abortion advocacy group Eagle Forum in Washington, D.C., said.
Ullman said, "Any mention of the unborn was removed from the platform."
Gayle Ruzicka, an RNC platform committee member from Utah, said officials squashed debate on the abortion item.
"They didn't allow any amendments. They didn't allow any discussion. They rolled us," Ruzicka said. "We only spent thousands of dollars to be here, and what they told us they were going to do isn't what happened. None of it happened. I've never seen this happen before. I don't understand why they did it, and I'm extremely disappointed that we do not have any pro-life language."
The platform that was given to the committee members was written by Trump and his advisors and distributed earlier this month as talking points. The committee members were there just to rubber stamp it, which they willingly did do, despite their bleating.
Those talking points and the subsequent ones come straight from Project 2025 and Agenda 47, which is quite clear that their Christofascist agenda includes a national abortion ban but also a ban on contraceptive medication and even IVF. For Trump and the T-RNC to continue to deny these facts is simply an insult to our intelligence. Then again, Trump's MAGA zombies don't have an intelligence to insult, which is why he's gotten away with it this far. The Trumpanzees are just trying to keep the whole abortion issue in the dark because they know that it would be the end of them if people started paying attention to it again.
What the T-RNC is being honest about in their platform includes attacking workers, attacking voter rights, and waging war on the disabled and the elderly. Going after brown and black-skinned people, dismantling the judicial system, and returning to anti-environmental standards.
When you objectively examine their platform, what's there not to hate?
