Former First Lady Melania Trump delivered a humiliating repudiation of former President Donald Trump’s stated anti-abortion stance in a stunning new video that’s a political gift to Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump has been trying to walk a line between bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade and trying to reassure voters he won’t sign a national abortion ban — while refusing to actually say he would veto one. He has come out against Florida’s six-week ban, then within a day said he will vote to uphold it.
This week, Melania Trump — whose upcoming memoir Melania has been dribbling out in advance of publication — stepped into the conversation in a big way. In an excerpt obtained by The Guardian, she expressed views that go beyond even those rights codified in the Roe v. Wade decision:
It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or pressure from the government.
Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body? A woman’s fundamental right of individual liberty, to her own life, grants her the authority to terminate her pregnancy if she wishes.
Mrs. Trump also posted a black and white teaser videos to social media in which she said there can be “no compromise” on a woman’s right to choose:
Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard.
Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth.
Individual freedom.
What does my body my choice really mean?
You can be forgiven for wondering where the “Abortion… by Calvin Klein” stinger went.
This news has been met by two equally absurd and closely related reactions. Among mainstream media types like CNN correspondent Jeff Zeleny, this is being portrayed as some sort of a strategic move in order to help Trump with voters by making him somehow appear more moderate, or as Zeleny put it, to “muddy the waters” with abortion moderates. Others have likened it to multidimensional chess.
In a very similar vein, resistance liberals have reacted with dismissive skepticism, born out of reflective hatred for Melania and for Trump. The reasoning is that this is some sort of a trick.
Before I address either of those premises, just stop and think for a minute about the ridiculous double standard we are talking about here.
Imagine this story were playing out for President Joe Biden. You don’t even have to change anything in the thought experiment. If First Lady Dr. Jill Biden came out and said exactly the same thing Melania said, the press would be portraying it as a devastating embarrassment for Biden because what Melania said is more than a few degrees to the left of Biden and MOST pro-choice Democrats, who explicitly favor the standard set forth in Roe v. Wade.
That standard allows for government restrictions on abortion at the point of viability, generally around 23 weeks. Melania, on the other hand, favors no intervention of any kind by the government and “no room for compromise.”
There is no universe in which such a split between Biden and his wife, narrower by orders of magnitude than the one between Melania and Trump, would be portrayed as some sort of a potential genius strategy move.
In Trump’s case, it’s so facially absurd as to be almost beyond worth commenting. Aside from the fact that Trump isn’t exactly famous for adhering to the teachings of T’Pau (or even T’Pring, amirite?), the move highlights exactly the position he’s trying desperately to get moderate women to ignore.
That’s not to say it’s impossible that they meant for this to be a strategic move, but if it is, it’s the most poorly executed one imaginable. It’s possible that in their inept attempt to execute this move, they gave Melania a script that they thought sounded moderate, but is in fact more extreme than the way Trump goes around lying about as “executing a baby.”
The same can be said of liberals who dismiss this as some sort of a trick. If it is a trick, it is a terrible one — and it’s in fact a political gift that we should all be amplifying with the zeal that Van Jones did — but minus the jocularity.
Whatever their intention, what Trump and Melania have done is handed Kamala Harris the perfect contrast between the pro-choice position and whatever it is that Trump is trying to push. And it is an easy one to exploit.
Every Harris surrogate should be on TV right now saying they agree with Melania, and Team Harris should be cutting campaign ads featuring the Melania video.
Instead of trying to game out whatever stupid Trump trick you think they might be trying to engineer, commentators should be twisting the knife at what a colossal humiliation it is for the former first lady to come out and take a machete to an issue that is so pivotal to Trump’s reelection.
There are probably going to be people whispering about the propriety of using Melania in a campaign ad, but in this case there would be no alteration or commentary needed. She cut the ad already and her pro-choice nomenclature is rock solid.
With or without an ad, there is an almost 100% chance that Trump will end up being triggered by this into doing something unhinged, blurting out something outrageous that will alienate even more women than he already has, and probably some anti-abortion people too.
Trump is desperate on the issue of abortion. With a right-wing base to appease and moderate women to try and peel off from Harris, Trump as the saying goes, doesn’t know whether to shit or go blind.
That’s why you had JD Vance at the debate rattle off a speech about a friend of his who had an abortion that could’ve come from a clinic escort at a Planned Parenthood rally. That’s why Trump is ranting into the night about protecting women like a blood-covered wolf who got caught in a pile of sheep carcasses.
That’s also why you can’t completely discount the possibility that this dumb idea actually was intended as a strategic move. But either way, it’s a gift-wrapped political explosive, and a blaring alarm at just how vulnerable Trump knows he is on the abortion issue.
Watch above via CNN.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
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