Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump laid into Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in a series of posts on his social media platform Truth Social after Trump backed away from a 15-week abortion ban that Graham’s been touting.
The opening salvo of the fight came in a four-and-a-half-minute video posted this morning where Trump announced his 2024 stance on abortion.
In it, Trump said that there shouldn’t be a federal decision on abortion restrictions. Instead, Trump said, the issue should be decided at the state level following the federal repeal of Roe v. Wade by his Supreme Court.
“I respectfully disagree with President Trump’s statement that abortion is a states’ rights issue,” Graham said in a statement. “The pro-life movement has always been about the wellbeing of the unborn child—not geography.”
“I will continue to advocate that there should be a national minimum standard limiting abortion at fifteen weeks because the child is capable of feeling pain, with exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother,” Graham wrote. “Forty-seven of fifty European nations have national limits on abortion between twelve and fifteen weeks. This is the civilized world’s position.”
Trump quickly fired back at Graham, accusing him of distracting from “Great Roe v. Wade Victory of sending a complicated and controversial Issue back to the States where, according to Highly Respected Legal Scholars on both sides, it belongs.”
Democrats, Trump said, “are thrilled with Lindsey, because they want this issue to simmer for as long a period of time as possible.”
Trump explained that keeping the decision at the state level and requiring exceptions for “Rape, Incest, and Life of the Mother,” would take the issue “largely out of play.”
“We cannot let our Country suffer any further damage by losing Elections on an issue that should always have been decided by the States, and now will be,” Trump said.
A 2024 study in the journal PLOS ONE found that the 2022 Congressional midterm elections, long expected to be favorable for the Republicans, were decided by “persuadable voters,” many of whom made their decisions in reaction to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
“Our findings reveal that the issue of abortion played a pivotal role during this election,” the paper concluded.
Republicans like Trump are worried that abortion might play a similar role in the 2024 presidential election, which, according to the polls, is a toss-up between the incumbent President Joe Biden and Trump
“We had a Great Victory, it’s back in the States where it belongs, and where everyone wanted it,” Trump said in another post to Truth Social. “The States will be making the decision. Republicans are now free to run for Office based on the Horrible Border, Inflation, Bad Economy, and the Death & Destruction of our Country!”
Trump then added in a post that in a way, it was his fault.
"I blame myself for Lindsey Graham, because the only reason he won in the Great State of South Carolina is because I Endorsed him!"
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