Trump snaps at reporter to 'just stop talking about' key voter issue

05 Nov 2024, 20:55 by https://www.facebook.com/17108852506 · AlterNet

Donald J. Trump/Shutterstock
Carl Gibson
November 05, 2024Bank

The defining issue of the 2024 election could prove to be abortion, given the impressive turnout seen among women voters so far. But former President Donald Trump is apparently hesitant to talk about it.

The ex-president voted in his newly adopted home state of Florida on Tuesday, which is also voting on a critical U.S. Senate race and a ballot question that would enshrine abortion rights in the Sunshine State's constitution. The Associated Press (AP) recently reported that when a Florida reporter asked Trump his thoughts on the abortion question, Trump first dodged the question, and simply said he did "a great job bringing it back to the states." The second time, Trump quickly shut them down.

"[Y]ou should stop talking about it," the former president said.

Trump has had to walk a fine line when talking about abortion. While he appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision in 2022, abortion rights have never lost in any state where the issue has been up to voters. This is true even in traditionally Republican states like Kansas, Kentucky and Montana in the 2022 midterms, and Ohio in 2023.

The decisive unpopularity of curtailing abortion rights has led Trump to be especially cagey about abortion. He initially said he would be voting in favor of protecting abortion rights in Florida, before abruptly doing an about-face and coming out against it after conservative evangelical voters revolted.

Trump has baselessly said without evidence that babies are being killed after being born (which is illegal in all 50 states). He repeated this claim at the September 10 debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, and was immediately fact-checked by ABC News moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir.

Question 4 – the Florida ballot measure that could protect abortion rights — would strike the Sunshine State's current six-week abortion ban and allow abortions up to 24 weeks into a pregnancy. Even though a majority of poll respondents consistently back the measure, a constitutional amendment in Florida needs to cross the 60% threshold in order to pass.

Florida is one of 10 states with abortion-related ballot measures being decided today. Kelly Hall, who is executive director of the Fairness Project, told the BBC this week that the Sunshine State is "the hardest place in the country to win" given the sizable cost of groups pushing for statewide ballot questions have to take on in order to be successful in the third-most populous state.

“If we overcome that particular barrier, there’s absolutely nothing holding us back from passing ballot measures everywhere it’s legal," she said.

Click here to read the AP's full report.