He thinks this is what pro-lifers think? He's a lunatic. Or a leftist. https://t.co/ZOvRG2ZFap
— Emily Zanotti (@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
More context for Trump/Matthews abortion comments on MSNBC: pic.twitter.com/S1k10jgDF8
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) March 30, 2016
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.
I'm starting to get the impression that Trump isn't running a policy-oriented campaign https://t.co/kRuaY2gtBF
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) March 30, 2016
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
— Haidar Sumeri (@IraqiSecurity) March 30, 2016
Pretty incredible. Trump's advocated partial birth abortion and criminalizing abortion for women. Largest tax increase ever/huge tax cut.
— andrew kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) March 30, 2016
It's hard to not look at Trump's shifting positions throughout career and not come to believe he has no core views other than own authority
— andrew kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) March 30, 2016
Trump praised @PPact. Now he says women who have abortions should be punished. He's tone deaf, nonsensical, and incapable of leading.
— Kimberly (@SouthernKeeks) March 30, 2016
@freddoso @alivitali @MSNBC He makes this stuff up as he goes. He'll say the opposite by dinner
— J. Rock Brazen (@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 NPR (@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
Years – decades! – of the pro-life movement saying it's not looking to punish anyone for abortion, cut out at the knees by Trump.
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) March 30, 2016
Even the most ardent pro-lifers think this is an awful, awful idea. That's how tone deaf and inept he is. https://t.co/qEfUwYF7yn
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 30, 2016
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
this is how someone who is pretending to be pro-life but has never thought the issue through talks https://t.co/JmZgxLBGku
— Conn Carroll (@conncarroll) March 30, 2016
This is Trump projecting a New York liberal's idea of what conservatives want https://t.co/P9nwTsRCsC
— Yair Rosenberg (@Yair_Rosenberg) March 30, 2016
"Let's punish people who have abortions" is the kind of thing someone who is pretending to be super pro-life would say.
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) March 30, 2016
@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 (@emzanotti) March 30, 2016
Let's "punish" them with love, compassion, mercy and prayers to understand error of ways
cc: @AbbyJohnson https://t.co/Fu0XbfojJc— Sandy (@RightGlockMom) March 30, 2016
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’
