He thinks this is what pro-lifers think? He's a lunatic. Or a leftist. https://t.co/ZOvRG2ZFap
— Emily Zanotti’s Great & Unmatched Wisdom (@emzanotti) March 30, 2016
Who says he can’t be both?
NEW Trump to @msnbc: "there has to be some form of punishment" for women who have abortions but he has yet to determine what that should be.
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) March 30, 2016
https://twitter.com/SopanDeb/status/715255923737042945
Watch:
Transcript:
Matthews: Do you believe in punishment for abortion? Yes or no, as a principle.
Trump: The answer is … that … there has to be some form of punishment.
Matthews: For the woman?
Trump: Yeah, there has to be some form.
Matthews: Ten cents? Ten years? What?
Trump: I don’t know. That, I don’t know. That, I don’t know.
Matthews: Well, why not?
Trump: I don’t know. Because I don’t know.
Matthews: You take positions on everything else.
Trump: I, frankly, I do take positions on everything else. It’s a very complicated position.
More from NBC News:
When asked what kind of punishment he had in mind, Trump lacked specifics and said he has “not determined what the punishment would be.” Trump noted that he does “take positions on everything else but this is a very complicated position.”
“If you say abortion is a crime or abortion is murder, you have to deal with it under the law,” Matthews stated, making the pivot from the moral position of being pro-life to the practical implications of implementing that position in the law.
Trump asked Matthews “are you going to say, well wait, are you going to say put them in jail? Is that the punishment you’re talking about?”
Trump doesn’t seem to have a clue what he’s talking about.
https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/715256460469514241
Because he's a liberal caricature of a conservative. He has no idea what he's talking about. https://t.co/6sxXjQ0wNu
— Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) March 30, 2016
Punishing women for having abortions? Is Trump running for the #US presidency or Al-Qaeda's shura council? https://t.co/dVoTrdovR8
— H. Sumeri (@IraqiSecurity) March 30, 2016
https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew/status/715255955433385985
https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew/status/715256201638985728
https://twitter.com/SouthernKeeks/status/715266168911736832
@freddoso @alivitali @MSNBC He makes this stuff up as he goes. He'll say the opposite by dinner
— Cocaine Jack (@jackbrazen) March 30, 2016
The flailing here is something to behold. He's literally never even thought about this stuff, just riffing. https://t.co/C5YlqDi6zJ
— Liam Donovan (@LPDonovan) March 30, 2016
His only consistent position seems to be pro-whatever-garbage-happens-to-be-rattling-around-his-brain-at-the-moment.
This subsequent statement certainly doesn’t make him sound any more competent:
#Trump campaign issues brief statement on #abortion: pic.twitter.com/jJFhzmHP5W
— Sarah McCammon ?? (@sarahmccammon) March 30, 2016
Bull. Trump is the anti-Reagan. He is no conservative.
Also completely misrepresents the conservative position on it so that's 25 years worth of work down the drain. https://t.co/A7af8WkwBu
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) March 30, 2016
https://twitter.com/BecketAdams/status/715252603983151104
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/715247855645102080
An example of his profound ignorance doing damage to the movement he's pretending to support. https://t.co/jOUi1sEXuB
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) March 30, 2016
Hillary pounces on Trump's ignorant distortion of pro-life position. He's a wrecking ball against conservatism. https://t.co/W79J1xJqdt
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) March 30, 2016
And against basic human decency.
People who are actually pro-life oppose this. Worth noting because it makes it easy to spot a poser. https://t.co/Rn5araIM14
— David Freddoso (@freddoso) March 30, 2016
https://twitter.com/conncarroll/status/715256906294628352
https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/715250370583347200
https://twitter.com/NoahCRothman/status/715248154044706820
@seanmdav Actual pro-lifers recoil at arguments pointing toward penalizing moms.
— Michael Connolly (@ConnollyDC) March 30, 2016
What. In. The. Actual. Fuck.
I'm pro-life. We love, we don't punish. Abortion is a sad thing. https://t.co/ZOvRG2ZFap
— Emily Zanotti’s Great & Unmatched Wisdom (@emzanotti) March 30, 2016
https://twitter.com/RightGlockMom/status/715247999153225728
Every woman and child has dignity and worth. Pro-life movement offers support, hope, healing to those caught in a culture that devalues life
— Sarah Torre (@sarahtorre) March 30, 2016
In all my years of being pro life, I've never heard another pro lifer want anything but grace and healing for women who've had abortions
— Michele Frost (@michelelfrost) March 30, 2016
Editor’s note: This post has been updated with additional tweets.
***
Update:
Guess Donald picked up on how well his comments went over with pro-lifers, because he’s issued yet another statement:
Trump issues clarification of his abortion-punishment position – and by "clarification" I mean "complete reversal" pic.twitter.com/ZRbAxgPxVm
— Anthony Zurcher (@awzurcher) March 30, 2016
***
Update:
Ted Cruz blasts Trump’s abortion comments: ‘He’ll say anything just to get attention’
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