Ex-President flip-flops into campaign oblivion.
Fact: The current Republican nominee for president of the United States, Donald Trump, is a resident of Florida.
Fact: Florida currently has a referendum on the ballot – Amendment 4 – which codifies a woman’s rights to her body without any government interference, nullifying its current draconian six-week abortion ban.
Fact: Trump campaigned in 2016 on nominating Supreme Court Justices with litmus tests to end the national Roe v Wade protections. He won that election and as president duly appointed three Justices that all lied to the Senate saying that Roe was settled law and then voted to overturn that decision and strip 51%of our citizens of their rights.
Fact: Post-Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization SCOTUS decision, 14 Republican-led states have enacted various abortion bans, some of them, like Texas and Alabama, horribly vicious, including Florida with its severe and wildly unpopular six-week abortion ban.
Fact: As a citizen of Florida, Donald J. Trump will now have a chance to put his political gambit on the line and vote on Amendment 4.
Question: How will he vote?
One would think he would vote “no” and stick to the six-week abortion ban. The overturning of Roe is essentially his doing – pushing the decisions on women’s rights to the states – but since six out of 10 Americans (four out of 10 Republicans and eight out of 10 Democrats) support reproductive freedom for women, it is campaign poison to support any bans on abortion. Predictably, wanting to win this election, Trump, who really has no ideological center on this or any issue (he was pro-choice until he decided to become Republican to gain power) has been running away from a maneuver he has repeatedly claimed to be extremely proud of – trashing Roe v Wade, as he’s bellowed that “Everyone wanted Roe overturned and I did it and I’m proud of that.”
And so…
Fact: On August 23, Trump posted on his Truth Social app: “My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.”
All of this is fair political vacillating for someone still claiming to not be a “typical politician,” and it may have actually worked. But when Trump fled New York for his Florida residence, becoming a citizen of the state, he entered the crosshairs of Amendment 4.
Opinion: Oops.
Fact: Amendment 4 states: “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”
Now Trump is forced to strip away the blather and posturing and braggadocio and cast a vote as a citizen. No lawyering up or FOX News pundit mansplaining, which means, he, as a presidential candidate, must reveal what he will do – no “kind of” and “sort of” or even “maybe if” stuff. This ain’t “going to release my taxes” or “build a wall” con job speak. Decide, either or, abortion ban or a return of Roe rights to Florida. That is the ballot question. No rhetorical half-assed escape: Yes or No. Choose.
I believe this is what Buddhists call ‘karma.’ It is a bitch, and it has not gone well for the ex-president.
Fact: On Thursday, August 29, Trump was rightfully asked in Michigan by an NBC News reporter how he will vote, as a citizen of Florida; the lead man on the necessity for such a vote because of his rights-killing justices, and because he is running to be president and a national abortion ban is absolutely on the table should Republicans take both houses of Congress. He answered, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”
Since it was a person-on-the-street type interview, and it was damaging to the Evangelical community’s ‘baby murder’ agenda, currently representing his staunchest supporters and understandably pitched a public fit about this quote immediately after the interview aired, the Trump campaign issued a statement later that day saying that their candidate misspoke (nice word to smooth over the “made it up on the spot” crap Trump usually spews), and has not “made up his mind” on Amendment 4.
If this was a normal election, and a crazy man who tried to overthrow a free and fair 2020 election wasn’t one of the candidates, voters might be alarmed to consider that with a little over two months left in a presidential election campaign, one of the two candidates has not made up their mind on the third most pressing issue in the nation. This is especially vexing when faced with the current Republican Party platform expressly supporting something called “fetal personhood,” a radically right-wing position on the issue.
Fact: “The Republican Party endorsed a platform at its national convention that would interpret the U.S. Constitution’s 14th amendment to grant embryos the same legal status as people – an anti-abortion ideology known as ‘fetal personhood,’ which could be used to ban abortion and other reproductive health services like in vitro fertilization. Trump’s campaign website links to the party platform.”
Fact: The Trump/Republican Campaign supports embryos as persons. It is in black and white, espoused at their convention a mere six weeks ago.
So… um, what?
Fact: The very next day, Friday August 30, Donald Trump told FOX News, “I’ll be voting no” on Amendment 4.
So… wait, what?
His ostensible reasons for the flip-flop? He was confused (This guy is running for president!) on Amendment 4 and is apparently unfamiliar with ballot initiatives and their “Yes” or “No” concept, which is taught at the eighth grade level in this country. He thought it was some kind of political buffet because Trump knows nothing about law or governance or civics or pretty much anything. He is an idiot. And now, apparently, despite his crowing about not being owned by anyone, he is an admitted puppet of the Religious Right.
Let’s face it: hate or love Trump, everyone knows that there is zero chance a guy who only wants to “win” would put a gaping hole in his campaign by supporting a six-week abortion ban, so no one knows what he thinks, but at the very least, his last statement (wait for another one tomorrow or the next day) supports a six-week abortion ban. And it doesn’t take much to extrapolate this to a time when and if he is president, and, again, with a Republican House and Senate, there is a very real chance a national abortion ban will be presented to his desk. If his answer on 8/30 is to be believed, then he would sign it into law.
Fact: The first thing the current 118th Republican-controlled Congress voted on (unanimous GOP votes to zero Democrats) was abortion-related. On January 9, 2023, six days after being sworn in, Republicans offered up and voted on Bill H.R. 7: “This bill modifies provisions relating to federal funding for, and health insurance coverage of, abortions. Specifically, the bill prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions or for health coverage that includes abortions. Such restrictions extend to the use of funds in the budget of the District of Columbia. Additionally, abortions may not be provided in a federal health care facility or by a federal employee.”
With a Democratic Senate and president, this had no chance of passing, but what if Trump wins?
Fact: Donald Trump is on record now as wanting a Six-Week Abortion Law in Florida, which means he wants one nationally as president, backed by his party that has “fetal personhood” on their platform and in their previous legislative actions.
Fact: Amendment 4 can only become the law in Florida if over 60%of its citizens vote for it, instead of just a majority – a prevision Republicans put in there to make it more difficult to pass. Currently, 67% of Floridians are for the amendment, and Trump’s Democratic opponent for the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris, is polling within four points of him in what has been a solid red state since the 2008 election.
Fact: Since the Dobbs decision, reproductive rights has been on the ballot seven times, and it has won every time.
Fact: Trump’s promise to vote against an amendment to protect abortion rights has put Florida in play for Harris and the Democrats.
Opinion: Oops.
