Trump says abortion ban should yield ‘punishment’ for women
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump talks to supporters as he leaves at a campaign stop today in Appleton, Wis.
MADISON, Wis. » Frustrated Republicans grappled with new fears about Donald Trump’s impact on their party today, as the billionaire businessman’s campaign rivals targeted his punitive plan for fighting abortion and extraordinary defense of his campaign manager, who police say assaulted a female reporter.
Concern rippled through Republican circles nationwide, yet few dared criticize the GOP front-runner directly when pressed, leery of confronting the man who may well lead their election ticket in November.
Their silence underscored the deep worries plaguing the party’s leaders — particularly its most prominent women — who are growing increasingly concerned that a Trump presidential nomination could not only cost the 2016 election but also tarnish the party brand for a generation of women and young people.
“A nominee who cannot speak to women cannot win,” New Hampshire party chairwoman Jennifer Horn said, though declining to rebuke Trump by name.
Trump added to his challenge when asked to explain his prescription to fight abortion, a subject that remains highly controversial decades after the Supreme Court legalized it.
He told MSNBC during the taping of a town hall-style event in Wisconsin that abortions should be banned and, if they are, women who get them should receive “some form of punishment.” That sparked an immediate backlash from both sides of the debate, and Trump’s campaign quickly backtracked, releasing a statement that sought to take back his words. It said that only those who perform abortions would be “held legally responsible, not the woman.”
“The woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb,” the new Trump statement said.
The abortion comments came as Trump questioned the findings of Jupiter, Florida, police, who charged his closest political adviser, Corey Lewandowski, with misdemeanor battery on Tuesday after examining surveillance video of an incident in which a reporter said she was grabbed and shoved. The police report said the woman’s arm revealed “bruising from what appeared to be several finger marks indicating a grabbing-type injury.”
“I don’t know who created those bruises,” Trump said Wednesday.
The Republican front-runner suggested his campaign manager was simply trying to protect him from Michelle Fields, a reporter for Breitbart News at the time, who was trying to ask him a question after a March 8 campaign appearance.
“She’s got a pen in her arm which she’s not supposed to have and it shows that she’s a very aggressive person who’s grabbing at me and touching me,” Trump said. “Maybe I should file charges against her.”
As Trump assailed Fields from a television studio, Republican rival Ted Cruz surrounded himself with women as he courted Wisconsin voters ahead of the state’s high-stakes primary next Tuesday. Cruz leads the state by 9 points among likely voters, according to a Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday.
Cruz campaigned in Madison with his wife, mother, two daughters and even their nanny in what he called a “celebration of women.”
“We’re here because we love our families,” Cruz declared, declining to repeat his harsh criticism of Trump from the day before. “Women are not a special interest. Women are a majority of the United States of America. And every issue is a women’s issue.”
Women favored President Barack Obama by 11 points over GOP nominee Mitt Romney in 2012, a divide highlighted in the Republican National Committee’s post-election study. “Our inability to win their votes is losing us elections,” the report’s authors wrote.
Yet Trump is poised to fare worse among women than Romney in a general election, according to recent polls that put his negative ratings nearing or even eclipsing 70 percent among women.
The RNC recommended that prominent female elected leaders be featured to promote the Republican brand, listing several, including South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Haley’s office said she was “unavailable for comment” Wednesday, among other female Republican officeholders who didn’t respond to AP requests for comment. They included Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Reps. Kristi Noem of North Dakota and Mia Love of Utah.
Liz Johnson, communications director for Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, who is in a tough re-election fight, issued this statement: “As a longtime prosecutor, Kelly believes Mr. Trump should leave this case to the criminal justice system, instead of wrongly trying it in the media.”
The Trump campaign was in discussion with the Republican National Committee about arranging a meeting with Chairman Reince Priebus on Thursday.
Trump is the undisputed GOP front-runner in the nomination fight, but should he lose Wisconsin, his foes would have a realistic chance of denying him the delegate majority he needs to claim the nomination before the July convention. In such a scenario, Republican delegates would select their presidential nominee in what would likely be a messy televised gathering.
Leading Democrat Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, attacked Trump’s rhetoric on women and minorities as she campaigned in New York.
“Just listen to Donald Trump. He plays coy with white supremacists. He says demeaning and degrading things about women,” she declared.
Clinton’s Democratic challenger, Bernie Sanders, told MSNBC that calling Trump’s comments “shameful is probably understating that position.”
———
Peoples reported from Washington. AP writers Catherine Lucey, Jonathan Lemire and Jill Colvin in New York, Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, Bill Barrow in Atlanta, Todd Richmond in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Emily Swanson in Washington contributed to this report.
40 responses to “Trump says abortion ban should yield ‘punishment’ for women”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Trump is a disaster waiting to happen. The party of hate, Republicans is going to get blasted come election time. What moron decided that Trump would get a hold on the party is a hero for the democrats. That’s what you get when you have such hateful resources as FOX News and Rush Limbaugh.
I believe the analyst who said Trump never intended to win. He’s flirted with running before, but it seemed more like publicity stunts to stay in the public eye, not like he really expected to get a lot of votes. There are just a certain percentage of people who are both frustrated and ignorant (and racist), and they’re voting for the guy who’s different. Fortunately, once it gets to 1-on-1, with either Cruz or Clinton, that ignorant minority won’t be enough for Trump.
And, an EXCELLENT WRITE-OFF! I think he’s just having fun playing with the GOP and he’s probably got a bet going with the 1% of THE 1%..; just to demonstrate how Stupid American-Voters are…
No comment. Just let the Donald keep talking. Nice knowing ya, GOP!
So, NOW, is everyone convinced yet that there is presently NO SANE CANDIDATE for President?
On your Ballots, WRITE-IN “KERMIT THE FROG”!
On the contrary, Gary Johnson is quite sane. While I may not agree with all his positions, he is the most rational and sane.
I know Gary personally and professionally and he smokes way too much weed.
Maybe that’s why he doesn’t have a neoconservative foreign policy that is so intent upon driving up the debt and burying Americans 6 feet under? Unlike Hillary and Cruz and depending on the wind, Trump.
Poor thing, he misspoke didn’t think straight. Now the women vote will even shrink more, Can’t win against them.
Poor thing? So when he says something ridiculous, he misspoke? Then he does nothing but misspeak. And as far as not winning against “them” (whatever that means in your mind) he shouldn’t “win” more than half the population, who he is trying to subjugate and control. He didn’t misspeak. He hates and disrespects women, and their ability to think and decide.
hate all repub, love lying Hillary no mater what. The whole thing was a gotch question. The rhetorical interchange, if you’d even bother ed to watch it and listen, was if abortion was illegal should a woman be punished for the act. Trump actually responded…’if the Federal govt made abortion illegal and it was held up by SCOTUS, then if some boke the law they should be punished”.A little truth here, Trump has never been anti-abortion, except late term(which by the way is illegal). And the Rhinos are mad at him because he’s not a strict all-in right to life candidate.
I bothered to watch the entire town hall event. Trump is unfit to be President – obviously. Late term abortion is not illegal. It might help to learn something for once.
I suppose “prohibited” may not be precisely defined as “illegal”, but I thought that viable, (previously known as third trimester, or late term) abortions, not causing undue hardships on the mother, were not allowed in at least 40 states. Has there been another SC decision further diminishing the state’s interest in fetus preservation?
My belief is that if a presidential candidate aborts his campaign by repeatedly making stupid and contradictory statements, he should be required to perform a few hundred hours of community service in a Planned Parenthood clinic.
Do not rely on this story. Trump has changed his position on this. Star Advertiser is about 10 hours behind Trump’s newest position and he is working on clarifying even further. That comes from Ben Carson and Trump.
That he or, more likely his advisers, changed his mind and so that he is now spouting his “newest position” is irrelevant. This is yet another example of how profoundly ignorant he is of the basic issues facing a President. Abandon NATO, shred the Geneva Conventions, nuclear proliferation in Asia would be a good thing, climate change is a Chinese hoax, etc. — this buffoon is too stupid to even know how stupid he is. There’s a word for that, but Trump wouldn’t know it because analysis of his speech ranks his verbal skills at roughly a 6th grade level. The word is anosognosia.
Flip a coin. That’s how you determine if Trump is for or against something.
Trump’s positions change more frequently than Winston’s hatred for whatever Obama is for at the moment (even if he supported it 10 seconds prior).
The diehard Republicans here have no ideology and it makes sense that they are overwhelming backing Trump who, likewise, has no ideology.
No temp, the problem is that Trump shoots his mouth off without fully thinking things through. We don’t need someone who is quick with his mouth without getting his brain in gear. this guy is nothing but a freakshow, I can’t believe that people vote for this guy.
I wonder if Trump is trying to find at what level people will abandon his campaign but will still buy his stuff.
I never fully believed that Trump actually wants to win.
But I do get why people are voting for him, even though he’s winging literally everything.
What about all the Lies told by HC? The media and public act like it’s natural. DT says things most of us wish we could but don’t. Auwe!
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/03/this-may-shock-you-hillary-clinton-is-fundamentally-honest/
Lindy West, writing in the New York Times, answers statements like yours that “DT says things most of us wish we could but don’t””
“Once you say, “He says what I’m afraid to say,” and point to a man who is essentially a 24/7 fire hose of unequivocal bigotry, you’ve said what you’re afraid to say, so how afraid could you have been in the first place? The phrase is a dodge, a way to acknowledge that you’re aware it’s a little naughty to be a misogynist xenophobe in 2016, while letting like-minded people know, with a conspiratorial wink, that you’re only pretending to care. It’s a wild grab for plausible deniability — how can I be a white supremacist when I’m just your nice grandpa? — an artifact of a culture in which some people believe that it’s worse to be called racist than to be racist. Trump fans are flattering themselves if they think that, say, declining to shout slurs at black people or sexually harass female co-workers is some form of noble restraint.”
SA headlines with Anti-Trump slant again. Way down in the middle of the story, the writer finally says that DT had changed what he meant. But since headline writers only read the first paragraph of a story, the headline could be easily slanted to fit SA’s editorial bias.
Also, watch the video of the so-called assault of the female reporter. She got past Secret Service protecting DT and was touched to move her back. She was not shoved, punched, or otherwise injured. Everyone must be aware. If you protect yourself from unwanted approach, the cops could charge you with assault and battery. Now, do you understand why so many Americans like what DT stands for.
I agree. Before she new there was “tape” evidence” she claims”I was grabbed violently pulled back and thrown to ground”Yet the anti-trump people still claim that the manager should be put in jail. At best this would be a misdemeanor(can you say fine only) but you’d think it was a felony from these folks.
2) since she actually grabbed Trump, in the same way, she should also be charged with”battery” and go to trial.
The shove or whatever it was aside, I will continue to post this transcript so you can see how Trump is not a President. A brilliant self marketer, and businessman, but not a president.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2016/03/21/a-transcript-of-donald-trumps-meeting-with-the-washington-post-editorial-board/
You may be right as to SA’s anti-Trump slant, but he bottom line is that Trump shoots from the hip way too often without thinking of the repercussions. And as the President of the United States word have signifcant repercussions.
The headline states a fact, although I understand that Trump supporters believe that printing facts in a newspaper is clear evidence of media bias. The story is that Trump said something astonishingly stupid and offensive. That he retracted it after advisers explained to him the impact of his statement doesn’t negate the fact that he said it. Trumpsters say that they support him because he says what he thinks, but in the rare occasions when he is forced to retract an ignorant or bigoted statement his supporters claim that he didn’t mean it. You can’t have it both ways.
I find it amazing that an advocate for a child’s life and survival is automatically an attack on women. Right is wrong and wrong is right these days. God help us.
You mean a fetus’s life. The GOP offers no support post birth and actively is trying to eliminate the support that does exist, contrary to how every other first world country provides support for children.
They aren’t pro-life, as much as pro-birth.
First of all, I can’t believe that Trump was stupid enough to even go on MSNBC in the first place. They have openly stated they “will do anything to keep Trump from getting elected”. Did you also notice that this story did not mention the name of the interviewer? Chris Mathews has on many occasions also said he “will do anything to keep Trump from being elected”. We all love to see “ambush” interviews… well this was a classic. If you’ve heard the tape of the actual interview you can understand. I challenge anyone being “interviewed” under those conditions to not say something stupid… and not even realizing you’ve been had. Also, the “Questions” and the “Quotes” sited in this story are not exactly as they were stated. Listen to the tapes. Trump didn’t come out and say that he believed such and such… there were a lot of “what ifs” thrown around by Mathews. I was confused, and I wasn’t even under the pressure of being interviewed… And to everyones surprise, Trump came out with a statement afterward “clarifying” his stance on abortion… he’s never done that before. Bottom line. Republicans are Pro-Life and Democrats are Pro-Choice. You make up your own minds.
Drumpf = Bozo going bonkers. God help us.
Trump said if abortions are banned, women who violate the ban should receive some form of punishment. What is wrong with that? Abortions can be banned law only. Thus, if a law is passed banning abortions or anything else, anyone one who violates any law subjects themselves to some form of punishment, so why is everyone attacking Trump for what he said?
The circus is in town!
The “Speed Style” questionings,both by CNN’c s Anderson Cooper and MSNBC /Chris Mathews was a tact to stumble Trump!! SOOO OBVIOUS and naughty too! It was a hypothetical question the media put forth & trump was merely responding!! He answered correctly! I don’t understand all the uproar coming from the media and the LOW INFORMATION/”Professor Brainwashed College Students” and my favorite the Liberal voters. And OH!! almost forgot! let’s not forget the other GOP candidates who pledged and signed to support the Republican nominee! Also what i don’t get is why Donald goes to these Media interviews;ie CNN,CBS,NBC,ABC, CNBC.He knows they don’t like him! So why?
I can see it now….This thing will once again back fire and blow up in their faces & Donald will prove to be……..RIGHT again!
Lastly, To all my friendly Sanders and Clinton supporters,pull your heads out of the SAND and stop analyzing everything you hear. Do your homework! To support Donald Trump: Go To http://www.donaldjtrump.com. C’mon let’s help Donald & “Make America Great Again”.IMUA
It’s Trump’s fault also that he shoots off his mouth before he puts his brain in gear. The reporters and most of us know this so we are just waiting to see what other things he says. MoiLee, we can see that you are a Trump supporter and get on everyone’s case when they say something negative about Trump but contrary to what you think he will not make America great if he is in power.
Trump views international agreements that provide the foundation for international security and stability as obstacles to generating profit.
If you have any issues with how mainland business goes about its short term views in how it does business in Hawaii, you should have real concerns with that mentality at an international level, only on steroids. Everything to Trump is just a deal or an obstacle to a deal to make more money. The long term consequences simply don’t matter to him.
He’s NOT Taking a presidential Salary!! & Also Funding his own Campaign… again with the “Hypotheticals”
Actually, Trump is taking money to fund his campaign and he has openly stated he will open every agreement up.
Or you do think he’s lying?
You’re so wildly uneducated Moilee and it shows.
“On the Contrary’my Bernie Supporter. If he DOES Make America Great Again?? I’ll be expecting a formal apology from you..”control”. & vice versa. lol.
In normal years this would be a cakewalk for the Democrats but this year the Democrats are in similar straits with having to choose between Hillary and Sanders. The dems want Trump to win the republican nomination because they know the majority of us don’t like the guy and won’t vote for him. Mainstream democrats are voting for Hillary but many people don’t like or trust her but Sanders isn’t really a democrat, he is an independent running in the democratic primary.