I think the Republicans speak very inarticulately about this subject.
I watched some of them without the exceptions, etc, etc.
I said other than certain parts of the country,
you're not gonna win on this issue.
>> Speaker 2: Donald Trump accusing others of speaking inarticulately on an issue.
Now, in this case,
he's actually referring to members of his own party on the issue of abortion.
Let's hear more of what he had to say.
>> Speaker 1: Democrats don't wanna see abortion in the 7th month.
Okay, I speak to a lot of Democrats.
They want a number.
There is a number and there's a number that's going to be agreed to.
And Republicans should go out and say the following because I
think the Republicans speak very inarticulately about this subject.
I watched some of them without the exceptions, et cetera, et cetera.
I said other than certain parts of the country,
you're not gonna win on this issue.
But you will win on this issue when you come up with the right number of weeks.
Because Democrats don't wanna be radical on the issue.
Most of them, some do.
They don't wanna be radical on the issue.
They don't wanna kill a baby in the 7th month or the 9th month or after birth.
And they're allowed to do that and you can't do that.
>> Speaker 2: Now, I would just like to commend Donald Trump for
telling the truth about where Democrats stand on the issue.
Because despite the incessant accusations that Democrats want late term
abortions abortions right after the baby is born, which is murder, by the way.
There are literally laws on the books against that.
Trump was willing to actually tell the truth, but not quite.
Because earlier in the interview, he basically claimed that Democrats
are extreme on the issue and they love late term abortions and
they want abortions up until the point the baby's gonna be born.
And even after the baby is born.
So it's like he loves to say two things at once.
He does it on every single issue.
>> Speaker 3: So, look, we're burning the lead.
I'm gonna get to the lead in 1 second, but let's keep burning it for one more second.
>> Speaker 2: Okay. >> Speaker 3: So he says in the earlier
part, they sometimes they want it after the birth.
Well, again, not a thing that's called homicide.
And then they bothered to debunk that.
No, there's no [LAUGH] law regulation that Democrats have pushed for
killing people outside the womb.
Not a thing that exists, right?
But he says that, then he turns around and
he knew very specifically in the longer version of the interview,
he said 92% of Democrats don't want abortions in the third trimester.
That's true.
So why did you make up to the Democrats wanna murder kids in the 9th month and
afterwards, right?
And why did you say it in the same interview?
>> Speaker 3: It's just so crazy.
>> He's inexplicable, in so many ways, but finally, the major story here.
Donald Trump is pro choice.
That was a definitive pro choice segment.
She asked many times, and he answered many times.
We just have to pick a week.
We have to pick the number of weeks and then okay and that's the answer.
Well, if you wanna say that abortion can be legal up until a certain number of
weeks, that's basically the pro choice position.
>> Speaker 2: Exactly.
>> Speaker 3: The antichoice position is no weeks.
It's a life form, and you're not allowed to touch it.
>> Speaker 2: Life at the moment of conception, which,
by the way, moment of conception, the second sperm enters the egg
even before it implants itself into the uterus, right.
Life at the moment of conception.
Anything happens to that life, it's tantamount to killing babies.
>> Speaker 3: Okay if you say, all right, that is definitively the antichoice or
pro life position, however you want to frame it, right?
Life begins at conception.
I've heard that for 40 straight years now.
And you could ask them.
That is their position.
But you say, all right, well, look, debts to activists, et cetera, but
the Republicans that are passing laws are saying 6 weeks, like Ron DeSantis, right.
>> Speaker 2: Which is effectively a ban, because women don't know they're pregnant,
usually at 6 weeks.
>> Speaker 3: And so our side will say that, and
maybe some people on the anti choice side will say that it's okay.
I mean, it's basically a ban on abortion if it's 6 weeks, right.
We'll take it.
But Trump is not saying that.
In fact, he's actively fighting against that, and he's saying, no,
let's pick weeks.
Whether it's 15 weeks, 24 weeks.
Well, if you pick 24 weeks, that is exactly Roe.
That's exactly what Roe said.
>> Speaker 2: Exactly, right yes.
Now, look, what prompted the answer that you just heard from Trump was the question
of whether Trump would pursue a federal ban on abortion.
And in the context of that answer, he also discussed how, look,
people wanted the issue to go back to the states.
I helped make that happen.
It should be left up to the states.
But then he proceeds to talk about what could be done on a federal level, right.
So, again, kind of contradicting himself by even answering that question.
If he genuinely believes it's a state's rights issue, he would have just said,
look, it's a state's rights issue.
Let's move on.
But he didn't.
He started talking about what could happen on a federal level, and his views on
abortion related policy on a federal level is the pro choice perspective.
And, look, this is what I think is actually transpiring here.
You say Donald Trump is dumb.
I think that in certain areas, he is not informed.
He certainly doesn't know how our government works.
He certainly doesn't know how our Constitution works.
But putting that aside,
the one area where I think Trump is actually pretty smart is politics.
Just saw a headline right now about how he's planning on delivering a speech
about the striking Car Auto Workers, right.
He understands that that is a popular thing to do.
Lean into the economic populism, even if you don't mean it.
In this case he saw what happened in the midterm elections,
the red wave that never happened.
A huge reason for that was because of the abortion bans.
It was because of the reversal of Roe.
And what's hilarious to me is that as he's calling out Republicans,
he's getting a lot of backlash from these anti abortion, anti choice conservatives.
Because they're delusional about the popularity of what their views are.
But before we get to that,
one more video where Trump calls out specific politicians by name.
>> Speaker 4: If a federal ban landed on your desk,
if you were reelected, would you sign it at 15?
>> Are you talking about a complete ban?
A ban at 15 weeks.
Well, people are starting to think of 15 weeks.
That seems to be a number that people are talking about right now.
>> Speaker 4: Would you sign that?
>> Speaker 1: I would sit down with both sides and I'd negotiate something, and
we'll end up with peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years.
I'm not gonna say I would or I wouldn't.
I mean, DeSantis is willing to sign a 5 week and 6 week ban.
>> Speaker 4: Would you support that?
>> Speaker 1: I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake, but
we'll come up with a number.
But at the same time, Democrats won't be able to go out in six months,
seven months, eight months, and allow an abortion.
>> Speaker 2: What Trump just said there, despite all the backlash
he's getting from conservatives and we'll get to the backlash in a moment,
was actually spot on in regard to where public opinion is on that.
>> Speaker 3: Yeah.
So Anna I don't think it's a matter of being smart or not.
I think that he's a con man, and he has been his whole life.
And so what do con men do?
>> Speaker 2: Some con men are smart.
>> Speaker 3: Yeah. Some are, for sure.
But he's a blunt instrument.
>> Speaker 3: Okay.
>> Speaker 3: I wrote about this in my book Justice is Coming.
He would test, along with assistance, they'd go on talk show hosts,
or first they'd listen to talk show hosts.
He'd have the assistants do it.
And then he would go on with, like, Mark Levin and Sean Hannity, et cetera, and
they would test two different messages because they don't care.
He would have been a Democrat if he thought that was more effective, right.
He would have been super kind and
giving if he thought that was gonna be more effective.
>> Speaker 2: So depressing that's not effective.
>> Speaker 3: I know. So
what they found out was what Republicans wanted to hear was, we hate immigrants.
That's the number one thing that they heard back from those experiments,
basically.
And he could have put out a pro immigrant message because he's used undocumented
immigrants his whole life on his real estate projects, right.
And in fact, they tested it and they came back, no, you gonna hate immigrants.
So in this case, what's he doing?
Well, he's giving people what they want, and it's actually elementary politics.
So he's like, people don't want a 6 week ban, and people in America
are overwhelmingly pro choice, so then why don't we be pro choice?
But we just don't say we are.
So that's why he says, well, I'm gonna negotiate number of weeks, 15-24.
Again, that's the pro choice position.
So he's just saying he's pro choice without using those words.
So why don't the other Republicans do it?
Good question.
So the reason Ron DeSantis is going extreme on abortion, social issues,
et cetera, is because he's trying to find room on the right to
be seen as more right wing than Trump rather than left wing,
because if he's seen as left wing, it's over.
He has no chance of winning, right?
>> Speaker 2: Yep. >> Speaker 3: So he's got to outflank him
on the right.
So he's gotta go to these extreme positions to have a prayer winning
the primary.
And then, by the way, if DeSantis or any of them win,
they'll renounce those positions in the general election, and
most of the media will come out and go, that's a smart pivot.
No, that's just a lie.
[LAUGH] Right.
But anyway, that hasn't happened yet.
So right now, Trump is going with the more popular position because duh.
>> Speaker 2: No, but it is amazing, right?
Because DeSantis's strategy will lead to even more failure.
And to be sure, Trump has only widened the gap between himself and
Ron DeSantis in the Republican primary polling.
But they don't get it.
I mean, it reminds me of the kind of campaigning that we're seeing from
Mike Pence.
I mean, put aside the fact that Republican voters who are loyal to Donald Trump
absolutely despise Mike Pence.
Put that aside.
Even if that weren't the case,
mike Pence has largely campaigned on anti abortion garbage.
Doesn't bode well for him, and it hasn't been really doing well for
Ron DeSantis either.
Let me just read what Ron Desantis'war room put out on X New.
Trump says he will compromise with Democrats on abortion so
they're nice to him.
Both sides are going to like me.
Then he says, it's a terrible thing babies with heartbeats are protected in Iowa,
Florida and South Carolina.
He didn't quite say that, but nonetheless, Ron DeSantis.
>> Speaker 3: But he kind of did, though.
I'll come back to that.
>> Speaker 2: But they're not heartbeats at 6 weeks.
Okay anyway, Ron DeSantis will never sell out conservatives to win praise from
corporate media or the left.
But listen, Ron DeSantis war room, get to know voters in your own party,
because voters in your own party don't like the draconian anti abortion policies,
including the effective abortion ban in the state of Florida.
They believe that abortions should be legal in the first trimester.
Yes, even the majority of Republican voters feel that way.
>> Speaker 3: So look, a huge thing happened today regarding Ron DeSantis and
abortion.
One of the top Republican donors in the country is given in hundreds of millions
pulled out from DeSantis and said, I'm not gonna support him anymore.
>> Speaker 2: Why?
>> Speaker 3: What happened?
>> Speaker 3: That's because of the 6 week abortion.
>> Speaker 2: Interesting, fascinating.
>> Speaker 3: Now, why, you think, is he just even though he's a massive
Republican, he's just adamantly pro choice?
No he says that's going to eliminate him from winning the general election.
And you see the really rich donors that actually control our politics,
the right wingers, they're not actually right wingers.
They don't actually care about abortion.
They used abortion to gain power so they can get tax cuts.
So now that abortion is going to cost them power, they're telling all
the Republican politicians, dump it like it's a bad habit.
Who gives a goddamn what these religious idiots think?
We're just using them as cannon fodder for our tax cuts, right?
So dump their sorry asses and move on.
And they're like, DeSantis, what's wrong with you?
Why aren't you dumping that?
It's not because DeSantis is open hearted.
It's for the strategy that I explained to you in a second.
But the donor thinks, I don't care what your primary strategy is.
I just care about winning a Republican, winning the general election because any
Republican will give me the tax cuts that I want.
>> Speaker 2: Right. And look, for those who are curious,
what do you mean?
It's just a way of getting tax cuts for corporations and the rich.
Just look into Paul Wyrich, who found a way to unite and
galvanize religious voters through the abortion issue.
But that wasn't what motivated him.
What motivated him was the fact that schools that refused to desegregate
were no longer able to claim, like, tax breaks and tax deductions, right?
And so he was furious about that and
needed an issue to galvanize religious voters and abortion worked.
But in this day and age, after having reproductive rights granted to
Americans through Roe v Wade in the 1970s, it's really hard to go back.
Even among religious voters.
A lot of them are like, I don't know, man,
maybe should be legal in the first trimester.
[LAUGH] Because, yeah, people want freedom.
They wanna be able to make decisions about their own lives.
And abortion isn't simply a culture war issue.
It is an economic issue as well.
Considering the kind of country we live in, the lack of support that families
get in this country when it comes to everything from medical bills,
our health care system, childcare it's a big issue for a lot of people, and
I think it's a big issue across the aisle, regardless of religion.
>> Speaker 3: So what Anna refers to I partly explain in chapter three of my book
justice is Coming, coming out tomorrow, actually tyt.com justice to order it.
And that chapter is called Why Republicans suck.
And among the reasons why they suck is because not only do they try to trick
you guys,
they try to trick their own voters because they don't give a damn about their voters.
All they care about is, give me the money Lebowski they're not investing $100
million into politicians because they don't expect a return.
They expect a massive return.
And by the way, even Trump is now saying, yeah, corporate taxes,
I'm going to cut them even more.
And that part of the strategy is actually smart.
He's undercutting DeSantis with his base.
DeSantis's base was the donors, so he's outflanking him in every direction.
But last thing I want to say is go back to the substance of this.
He said about the six week ban that it would be a terrible thing and
a terrible mistake.
Well, you're just told all of the pro life voters in the country that
their position is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake.
That is indisputable.
You can go and watch the tape.
That's what he said about the 6 week ban.
So, yes, there should be repercussions from conservatives going,
I guess Donald Trump was lying to us the whole time, and
he was pro choice the whole time.
Which, by the way, remember, he used to be publicly.
>> Listen, my prediction is they won't be upset.
>> Speaker 3: Of course not, right?
But, hey, you know what?
Maybe good news out of this, because maybe now Maggie will be like Trump said it,
we are now all pro choice.
We'll take it.