Watch: JD Vance Struggles to Explain Melania Trump’s Abortion Views

The New Republic

Ohio Senator JD Vance skirted addressing Melania Trump’s startling abortion views on Friday.
Vance, for one, has previously likened abortion to murder and has supported efforts to strip abortion access away from women.
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Senator JD Vance of Ohio declined to respond to Melania Trump’s shocking remarks on abortion on Friday. In front of an audience in Lindale, Georgia, the Republican vice presidential nominee declared that he had no plans to argue with the outgoing first lady over their radically divergent viewpoints on the contentious topic.

“Melania is entitled to her own views in the same way the people of Georgia are entitled to their own views, but I love Melania, I think she’s a great wife to the president, and I think a great example of grace under an incredible amount of pressure,” said Vance. And since our campaign is once again focused on inflation, border security, improving affordability, and creating more jobs for Georgia and the nation as a whole, I don’t think I need to disparage, disagree with, or criticize anyone on this issue.

“Look, I believe she is a bright individual. She has the right and I believe she will express her opinions. It doesn’t, however, alter the way I or this campaign discuss the problem, Vance continued.

Prior to the publication of her soon-to-be memoir, Melania, the former first lady, advocated for access to abortion and supported women’s “individual freedoms” by posting a video to her X account. Regarding the new book, Donald Trump acknowledged that he had urged her to “write what you believe” in a Thursday interview with Fox News.

Vance and the rest of the conservative apparatus are stuck as a result of the abrupt, careless flip. Republican support for abortion has declined across the country. Republicans suffered disastrous losses in districts where abortion was a major talking point in November 2022 as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn abortion access. After the election, the conservative party saw a remarkable 180-degree turn, with GOP advisors characterizing the issue’s tide-turning as a “major wake-up call.”. “.

But the Republican Party has largely refused to give it up, particularly the MAGA movement. For example, Vance has advocated efforts to deny women access to abortion and has compared it to murder in the past. A “minimum national standard” on abortion restrictions was demanded by the Ohio politician in 2023, and his campaign for the U.S. S. Senate in 2022 put a statement on his website characterizing him as “100 percent pro-life.”. “.

When asked about Donald Trump’s constant accusations that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, JD Vance was unable to come up with a response on Friday.

Trump has consistently asserted that he “won” the 2020 presidential election and that the results were “rigged,” stating as much at almost every campaign stop even after four years had passed.

When Vance was asked to address the former president’s remarks the following day while giving a speech in Lindale, Georgia, he finally admitted on Thursday that he too thought Trump had won the election.

A reporter questioned, “Senator, would you use that specific term, ‘rigged’?”. “Do you agree with the president that the 2020 election was rigged? You have expressed concerns in the past about election integrity.

With his usual acrimony, Vance replied.

I’m not from the South; I’m from Ohio. Vance answered, “But I think, I think there’s a saying that really works in the South: Bless your heart.”.

Before anything else, we’re thinking about the future, Vance stated, swerving the question. “If you listen to President Trump and me, we have our sights set on the future. “.

Vance’s nonresponse makes it painfully evident how he plans to undermine the outcome of the presidential election in order to reach the future he and Trump have envisioned.

In a similarly “damning nonanswer,” Vance stated that he was “focused on the future” in response to a question about whether he thought Trump had prevailed in the 2020 vice presidential debate on Tuesday. “.

All that President Trump has stated, according to Vance, is that there were problems in 2020. He has also stated that he believes peacefully debating these issues in public squares is the best course of action. He eventually expressed unequivocally two days later that he thought Trump had won the election.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer dismissed worries about the Republican response to the previous election earlier this week, saying that only the liberal media continued to focus on the supposed election conspiracy. In addition, Corey Lewandowski, one of Trump’s closest advisors, bumbled when asked about the 2020 election, saying that people were no longer interested in the outcome. It appears that Trump is fixated on 2020 in addition to the fact that he still cares.

With the election less than a month away, this week’s remarks made by Trump regarding the 2020 contest have new significance. Special Counsel Jack Smith’s previously undisclosed document from earlier this week claimed that Trump had conspired to contest the 2020 election results even after being assured time and time again that he had no proof of election fraud. Trump also intended to declare victory regardless of the outcome.

Further about Vance’s outlook for 2020:.

According to a recent Financial Times story, Harris and her campaign have been contacting business executives and leaders to ask for their support in opposing Donald Trump, and it looks like the vice president is having some success.

According to the Times, Harris has met with a number of executives during her campaign, including Greg Brown of Motorola, Caroline Lynch of CVS, Charles Phillips of Infor, and Ryan McInerney of Visa.

The establishment of Business Leaders for Harris, a fund-raising initiative for the vice president, was announced by several executives on Friday. These individuals comprise Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, Mark Cuban, the billionaire tech and healthcare entrepreneur, Reed Hastings, the co-founder of Netflix, and Ken Chenault, the former CEO of American Express, who currently leads a private equity firm. Even a prominent speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention in August was granted to Chenault.

Speaking to the Times, two finance executives said Harris informed them that they expected her to appoint people to the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission who would be less stringent than the current heads of the agencies, Gary Gensler and Lina Khan, who have both been remarkably successful in reorienting their departments to pursue corporate consolidation and crack down on malfeasance. Another ally of Harris’s, Maryland Governor Wes Moore, has also said that Harris would be more accommodating to large corporations.

Furthermore, Tony West, the CEO of Uber, a business that labor unions have taken issue with due to its reliance on independent contractors and opposition to worker organization, is Harris’s brother-in-law and close advisor. Indeed, West’s closeness to Harris might have played a role in the Teamsters’ unexpected decision to withhold their endorsement of her.

The left has praised Harris and Gensler’s positions on workers’ rights and antitrust law. As the head of the FTC, Khan has grown to be somewhat of a progressive favorite due to her pro-worker policies, and pro-labor voters will not be pleased with Harris’s courtship of executives who disagree with Khan. Though less well-liked, Gensler has challenged the cryptocurrency sector and irritated corporate executives with new financial disclosure regulations. Harris may support them and carry on President Biden’s policies, but that is yet to be seen.

The latest series of campaign commercials from Kamala Harris, the Republican nominee, highlighting her connections to Project 2025, is driving Donald Trump crazy.

With seemingly threatening words, he went on, “Lyin’ Kamala has been informed, legally, that I have, and had, nothing to do with it, NEVER READ IT, NEVER SAW IT, but her ads continue, full blast.”.

As a comprehensive Christian nationalist policy blueprint for a second Trump presidency, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and at least twenty-six Trump allies developed Project 2025. In a new 30-second commercial, the Harris campaign claims that “Trump will have unrestricted political power thanks to his Project 2025 agenda. “.

The creators of Project 2025 have stated as much, despite Trump’s insistence that he has nothing to do with the initiative and the federal abortion ban it supports.

Paul Dans, the former director of Project 2025, has spoken with members of Trump’s campaign staff multiple times at Mar-a-Lago and once boasted about having “great relationships” with the president and other Republicans. In the end, yes, Dans said, clarifying that Project 2025 was centered on a presidential transition team. You know, I think President Trump is really on board with this. “.

Dans further referred to Project 2025 as a “manual for a second Trump presidency” and stated that although the plan was not directly connected to Trump’s campaign, “you’ll see one-to-one mirroring” in terms of policy recommendations. “.

Some of Trump’s more extreme policy ideas—like a plan to dissolve the Department of Education—have even been taken directly from its pages.

Even though the far-right playbook was created specifically for him, Trump has persisted in trying to disassociate himself from it. “Remember that Kamala is lying when you hear them discussing Project 2025,” Trump wrote on Friday.

More on the 2024 race:.

A few days following the October 7 attacks by Hamas, U. s. Government representatives issued warnings, which were regrettably disregarded, about the potentially catastrophic humanitarian consequences of Israel’s retaliation in Gaza.

According to Reuters, a senior Department of Defense official sent an email to senior White House officials just a few days after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 of last year, cautioning that the early Israeli bombardment of the area could result in war crimes.

When Dana Stroul, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East at the time, relayed worries from the International Committee of the Red Cross that Israel’s order to evacuate over a million Palestinians from Gaza would result in a humanitarian catastrophe, she was “chilled to the bone.”. “.

Stroul, recounting an email exchange with the ICRC Middle East director on October 13, said, “ICRC is not ready to say this in public, but is raising private alarm that Israel is close to committing war crimes.”. Their main argument is that a million civilians cannot possibly move at this speed. “.

Three sets of email correspondence between U.S. S. government officials from October 11 to October 14, demonstrating that early concerns about the number of civilian deaths in Gaza, transgressions of international law, and boosting the flow of humanitarian aid were shared by State Department and DOD employees. Additionally, there were internal alerts warning that relations with Arab nations might suffer if it was thought that the US did not sympathize with the Palestinians.

Following Israel’s bombardment of Gaza’s hospitals, schools, and mosques, State Department public diplomacy chief Bill Russo reported to his superiors that the U.S. S. was, as per an email on October 11, “losing credibility among Arab-speaking audiences.”.

Later, Russo reported that reports from Arab media indicate U.S. S. Middle Eastern ambassadors were charging Israel with genocide and the U.S. s. of taking part in war crimes.

The U.S. S. is not only ineffectual and counterproductive in its lack of response to the humanitarian conditions facing Palestinians, but we are also facing accusations of complicity in possible war crimes by keeping quiet about Israel’s actions against civilians,” Russo emailed.

He stated in a different email that the Biden administration “risks damaging our stance in the region for years to come” if it continued to support Israel and its war in Gaza without reservation. Afterwards, in March, Russo would step down for private reasons.

Although representatives of the White House claim that their early pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stopped a worse catastrophe in Gaza, the death toll in Gaza now stands at over 42,000, with 16,500 of those killed being children. Though an arms embargo could put an end to a conflict that has since spread to southern Lebanon, the Biden administration continues to reject calls to use its billions of dollars in aid to Israel as leverage to push for a humanitarian cease-fire.

The Bible hoax of Donald Trump is about to bring in some money domestically.

Although Superintendent Ryan Walters’s guidelines for the approved Bibles have grown startlingly narrow, the Oklahoma Department of Education opened bids on Monday to fill a 55,000 unit order of Bibles for classrooms throughout the state.

According to bid documents, the Bible must fulfill stringent requirements, such as being in the King James version, having both the Old and New Testaments, and having copies that contain essential historical details about the U.S. s. the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the U.S. educational system. s. the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. The requirement that the text be bound in leather or a material resembling leather is explicitly included in Oklahoma.

It is interesting to note that this reduces the field of candidates to one obvious option: Trump’s God Bless the USA Bible.

The Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice Executive Director Colleen McCarty told The Oklahoma Watch, “The RFP seems fair on its face, but with additional scrutiny, we can see there are very few Bibles on the market that would meet these criteria, and all of them have been endorsed by former President Donald Trump.”. **.

Trump co-sponsored the $60 limited-edition Bible with singer Lee Greenwood of “God Bless the USA,” which helped the product launch and generate some quick cash. A different edition that was autographed by the Republican contender for president sold for $1,000 each. “We must make America pray again” was the print’s main selling point, a reference to Trump’s campaign. According to financial disclosures made public by the former president, the far-flung rift brought in $300,000 in royalties before the Oklahoma bid.

Walters announced revised standards for Bible instruction in schools in July, along with penalties for participating districts.

At the time, Walters declared, “Every teacher and every classroom in the state will have a Bible in the classroom and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom.”.

* The outlet from which the quote was obtained was originally incorrectly identified in this post.

Further on the Trump grifts:.

Since departing the Trump White House, Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of Donald Trump, is said to have spoken with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia multiple times.

Kushner had talked about restoring relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, a source familiar with the talks told Reuters. However, the source would not say whether these talks took place before or after Israel began its deadly military campaign in Gaza.

If the statements made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are to be believed, Saudi Arabia declared last month that it would not recognize Israel until a Palestinian state was established. Kushner’s plan to relocate Palestinians to the Negev Desert and develop Gaza’s “very valuable” waterfront property stands in stark contrast to this. “.

As Trump’s principal Middle East advisor, Kushner played a pivotal role in implementing the Abraham Accords, which allowed Israel to restore diplomatic relations with two other Gulf states.

Kushner’s cozy relationship with MBS highlights how Donald Trump might choose to work with Saudi Arabia should he be reelected in November. Three individuals close to Kushner stated that they anticipate Trump’s son-in-law participating in any discussions with Saudi Arabia in an unofficial capacity. Kushner’s agent refuted the idea that he was looking for a position like that.

Nevertheless, it’s unclear if Kushner has any influence over MBS in their connection.

After receiving billions from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and other foreign governments, Kushner’s company, Affinity Partners, was discovered last month by the Senate Finance Committee to have yet to provide any profit to its foreign investors.

Foreign governments have influence over the Trump family because of investments made by sovereign wealth funds and potential real estate transactions, according to Senator Ron Wyden’s report. “.

In Wyden’s words, “a future Trump administration may be financially motivated to make foreign policy decisions that go against the interests of the country in order to maintain Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s ability to receive millions of dollars in fees from foreign governments through Affinity.”. “.

The source who was privy to Kushner’s conversations with MBS said that it wouldn’t be appropriate for her to share further information about their friendship when pressed. “.

“Go back to where you came from,” a Republican state senator in Idaho yelled at a Native American candidate during a political forum on Tuesday.

In Kendrick, Idaho, during a bipartisan “Meet Your Candidates” event, a member of the public asked Senator Dan Foreman whether discrimination was practiced in the state. According to Boise State Public Radio, he replied that it didn’t.

Taking issue with Foreman’s claim, Nez Perce candidate Trish Carter-Goodheart spoke up in her state House campaign.

“When it came my turn to speak, I stated calmly that discrimination does not always go unnoticed—just because someone hasn’t personally experienced it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Anyone familiar with the history of our state knows that racism and discrimination are serious problems in Idaho, as stated by Carter-Goodheart in a statement following the forum.

Others present at the event affirmed Carter-Goodheart’s remarks, which she made “highlighting our weak hate crime laws and mentioning the presence of the Aryan Nations in northern Idaho as undeniable evidence of this reality.”.

When Foreman lost his cool, he allegedly stormed out of the event, yelling, “I’m so sick and tired of this liberal bullshit! Why don’t you go back to where you came from?”.

Foreman is an Illinois native, but the Nez Perce tribe and other Native American tribes have lived in the Pacific Northwest for thousands of years. The senator, who yelled at students advocating for birth control in Boise in 2018, has a history of yelling and using foul language in public.

In states that were close to becoming battlegrounds, like Wisconsin and Arizona, Native American voters proved to be crucial in the 2020 election. Even in small-town Idaho, racist outbursts won’t help Republicans win crucial votes.

After coming out as a fervent pro-choice advocate, Melania Trump’s husband, the MAGA, is acting as though he concurs.

Melania, the former first lady, published a video to her X account defending women’s “individual freedoms” to do with their bodies as they please, ahead of the publication of her soon-to-be memoir.

In an audio clip made public on Thursday, Melania declared, “I defend individual freedom as a fundamental principle.”. “There is absolutely no room for compromise when it comes to individual freedom, a fundamental right that all women have from the moment they are born. “My body, my choice: what does it really mean?”.

Seemingly, the strongly anti-choice Republican presidential nominee was cool with that position. Regarding the new book, Trump jokingly admitted that he had urged his wife to “write what you believe” in an interview with Fox News on Thursday.

“You have to follow your heart,” I told you,” Trump said to the right-wing network. “I have always told people to follow their hearts. Some people have an extremely conservative viewpoint on the matter, meaning they don’t believe in anything at all, while others have a slightly different perspective. “.

Melania Trump was told by Trump, “I’m not going to tell you what to do.”.

However, his opponents fiercely criticized that straightforward statement, claiming that his campaign, Project 2025, and the Republican Party had gone above and beyond to dictate to every other American woman what she should do with her body. These opponents had taken up causes ranging from advocating for a nationwide ban on abortion to applauding the growing stateside restrictions on other, related reproductive procedures like IVF.

“Well, so while millions of other women are denied the freedom to choose, Melanie is. Sent by writer Jemele Hill of The Atlantic, “Got it.”.

Nonetheless, national security lawyer Bradley Moss posted, “He has no problem with states telling your daughters what to do with their bodies.”.

Further reading on politics: x.

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