Supporters of Joe Biden have had a bad couple of weeks. Recent polls show Donald Trump leading in the race for president and the report of special counsel Robert Hur made headlines when it labelled Biden an “elderly man with a poor memory.”
But in the last few days, Trump has drawn negative attention to himself, effectively easing the Biden campaign off the ropes — first by talking openly about letting the Russians do “whatever the hell they want” in Europe, then with remarks he made behind closed doors about abortion.
On Friday, the New York Times broke the story about those remarks. Trump, the Times reported, “has told advisers and allies that he likes the idea of a 16-week national abortion ban with three exceptions, in cases of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother.”
The endorsement of a national abortion ban could be a game-changer in the November election. Just as the effort to overturn Roe v. Wade mobilized Republican voters for decades, the prospect of such a ban should mobilize millions of people who, whatever their doubts about Biden, want to preserve reproductive rights.
Trump’s latest statement marks just another twist and turn in his evolving position on abortion.
Twenty-five years ago, he called himself “very pro-choice.” He said that “I hate the concept of abortion. … But still, I just believe in choice.”
In 2016, during his first presidential campaign, Trump changed his tune, saying he was “pro-life” and denouncing abortion rights. The real estate mogul went as far as to say that if a woman ignored a ban on abortion the government might impose, she should be subject to “some sort of punishment.”
Reacting to a firestorm of criticism, as the New York Times then explained, Trump “recanted his........