Rantz Fact Check: AP claims unclear if Donald Trump would ban abortion nationwide. Is that true?
Nov 8, 2024, 4:55 PM | Updated: 5:07 pm
To the shock of MSNBC viewers and talking heads, President-elect Donald Trump won bigly, crushing Democratic opponent Kamala Harris. But that doesn’t mean the fearmongering will end.
Associated Press reporter Bill Barrow published a story this week to outline potential “sweeping action” the president-elect will take in his second administration. The partisan article was framed to frighten liberals about what was to come.
Though Barrow admits that Trump lobbied the Republicans to remove a national abortion ban from its platform, the AP reporter claims it’s still unclear how he would actually treat that issue as president.
“Still, Trump has not said explicitly that he would veto national abortion restrictions if they reached his desk,” Barrow claimed.
Is that true? Has Trump not been explicit on the issue of a national abortion ban? Let’s give it a Jason Rantz Fact Check.
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Would Donald Trump support a national abortion ban?
Though abortion was not the top issue for voters, Democrats and left-wing media leaned into the issue, warning that a national abortion ban from a Donald Trump administration was on the table.
Trump, of course, could not ban abortion nationwide. He’d need congress, where he doesn’t have the votes. But assume that changes and that Republicans pass legislation banning abortion nationwide. AP indicates we don’t really know what Trump would do.
Except we do.
On October 1, Trump posted his position clearly via social media. He even typed it in all caps so even bad faith AP reporters couldn’t miss it.
“Everyone knows I would not support a federal abortion ban, under any circumstances, and would, in fact, veto it, because it is up to the states to decided based on the will of their voters,” he declared.
The post was easily found with a cursory Google search. But you wouldn’t know Trump’s position based on the AP report.
Did Barrow lie? Did he and his editors forget to do a quick Google search? Perhaps this is just sloppy reporting.
It’s anyone’s guess. Barrow was alerted to his error on X but hasn’t replied or edited his false claim.
Consider the abortion claim fact-checked. It’s false.
Writing for the AP, @BillBarrowAP says, “Trump has not said explicitly that he would veto national abortion restrictions if they reached his desk.”
This is completely false. So the question is if he did this intentionally or forgot to Google the issue. https://t.co/vpCsdqtSW9
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) November 6, 2024
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