Donald Trump’s comments on Wednesday, where he addressed that women should face “some sort of punishment” for having an abortion, created probably the biggest crisis in his campaign as pro-life and pro-choice activists agreed that his comments were outrageous.
The Republican front-runner quickly issued a retraction of his comment by saying that if Congress were to pass legislation making abortion illegal and the federal court upheld this legislation or any state were permitted to ban abortion under state and federal law, the doctor or any other person performing this illegal procedure should be held legally responsible, not the woman.
The woman is a victim in this case, as is the life in her womb, the billionaire said while adding that his position has not changed, like Ronald Reagan, he defined himself as pro-life with no exceptions.
But even though he had regretted his position, the statement was out. GOP establishment urged to condemn Trump’s retracted position and suggested that the candidate had been finally unmasked as a conservative impostor, as reported by The Guardian.
“For a guy who considers himself a genius, he just made idiotic and moronic blunders on abortion,” said Ryan Williams, Republican strategist and former spokesman for Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign.
As the critics increased for the former reality TV host, his comments were described to CNN as a “simple misspeak” by a spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign, Katrina Pierson. She assured that Trump did not support any kind of punishment to women for having abortions, if the act were to be illegal.
Pierson added that this misspeak should not be part of a 24-hour headline when the U.S has bigger things to worry like the terrorism going on in the world.
An opportunity for Democrats
If even Republicans quickly condemned Trump’s comments over abortion, it should not be a surprise that candidates like the Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton would jump to criticize the comments as well.
Clinton saw an opening and established a digital ad campaign to go after the billionaire’s infamous punishment act to women. She even tweeted on Wednesday that someone with that much contempt for women’s right should not be anywhere near the White House. Other Democrats also saw Trump’s position as a confirmation to his war against women.
In a poll made by the Washington Post and ABC early this month, it was determined that if Trump were to secure the Republican presidential nomination, he would be the least-popular candidate to represent either party in modern days.
The results were that three-quarters of women, nearly two thirds of independents, 80 % of young adults, 85 % of Hispanics and about a half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents perceived Trump as unfavourably.
Source: The Guardian
Poor spoiled Trumpy – another business decision gone bad.