Former President Donald Trump took to social media over the weekend to blame the pro-life movement for a worse-than-expected midterm election performance by Republicans in November.
The move comes as Trump continues to position himself toward the 2024 presidential campaign but still faces questions from detractors pointing liability in his direction for endorsing weak candidates in various primary battles.
In the post, from Truth Social, Trump takes a swipe at “no exceptions” pro-life Republicans specifically and also takes a shot at Mitch McConnell:
It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations in the MidTerms. I was 233-20! It was the “abortion issue,” poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of R-pe, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters. Also, the people that pushed so hard, for decades, against abortion, got their wish from the U.S. Supreme Court, & just plain disappeared, not to be seen again. Plus, Mitch stupid $’s
Setting aside whether Trump is correct–that the Dobbs ruling overturning Roe v. Wade cost Republicans the Senate or House seats–the bigger question is about whether Trump is turning on part of his base. There’s no question that many conservatives underestimated the backlash at the polls resulting in greater numbers of young voters and women voting Democrat despite President Biden’s abysmal economic policies.
As a candidate and as a President, Trump was always vocal and supportive of the pro-life movement, it’s likely why many evangelical pro-life voters fell in line despite misgivings about some of his personality traits. He promised, on multiple occasions, to appoint judges that would revisit Roe v. Wade and would be, as he put it, “pro-life judges.”
Trump delivered on that promise by nominating Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanagh, and Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. All three with strong pedigrees that suggested they would heir on the side of states’ rights when it came to abortion, an issue specifically not confined or held as a federal issue.
What Trump’s really doing here is continuing to absolve himself of any blame related to the midterm elections. It wasn’t me, he says, it was those darn pro-lifers that pushed too hard and got what they wanted. That’s true in a sense but it’s also true that Trump wouldn’t have been President without them and likely would face difficult headwinds in the future if he begins attacking pro-lifers as problematic to the Republican cause.
If you take Trump’s criticism at face value, however, he’s correct in a few ways. Many Republicans did not know how to respond to the new Dobbs environment they found themselves in. For decades, abortion was an issue left for states that wanted to fight the legal battles. Federal legislators didn’t need to bother since it wasn’t a federal issue. Then, overnight, the Dobbs decision turned the midterm field into a new political game and Democrats had the ball.
Trump is correct in chastising Republicans for seeming to abandon the issue since many of them didn’t know how to articulate their views or lacked the backbone to stand by their conviction in the face of erroneous or extreme straw man scenarios.
Where Trump veers off the rails, perhaps, is in attacking the movement itself or appearing to blame pro-life voters for their desire to protect unborn life.
What is inevitably needed today is more and more ongoing dialog over the issue. For some long, there’s been a one-sided discussion along the lines of being pro-life or pro-choice. States will now be grappling with questions of when life begins and when life deserves protection. Most in the pro-life cause would rather take the legal victory of undercutting Roe v. Wade and take up the next round of political fights another day. Wars are won in small battles over time, rarely overnight.
This exchange, from a few months back, between Seth Dillon, founder of the Babylon Bee, a conservative satire site, and podcaster Joe Rogan is a prime example of the discussions taking place now that need to continue. It would be easy for Dillon to relent from his pro-life views in response to Rogan’s 14-year-old daughter scenario, but he doesn’t. It’s worth a watch:
