A spokeswoman for Donald Trump struggled on Thursday to explain the candidate’s comments that a woman should be punished for getting an abortion.
“[H]e never called for a ban on abortions,” Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson said. “This was a discussion with Chris Matthews over a hypothetical ban. And in that discussion when talking about potential consequences about doing something illegal, in this case an abortion, he said, yes there should be consequences and when Chris Matthews said ‘For women?’ He said yes, just not distinguishing the difference here, which is exactly why he clarified: No it shouldn’t be the woman but the one actually performing the illegal act.”
When pushed by Alisyn Camerota on Trump’s comments — the host read the script of the Trump interview with Matthews in which Trump said he did support an abortion ban— Pierson pushed back again.
“This is a misspeak Alisyn. No, Alisyn there was a misspeak here,” Pierson said before the two went back and forth over Trump’s words and whether or not he called for an absolute ban on abortions, and subsequent punishments.
Despite Trump saying “I would,” when asked if he would ban abortions as president, Pierson asserted that Trump clarified the comments.
“Donald Trump is pro-life with exceptions. He does not support penalizing women for having an abortion even when they are illegal,” Pierson said. She later added, “This was a complete misspeak during a conversation over a hypothetical concept and there was a clarification issued.”
Pierson dodged the next question about whether Trump wants abortion banned nationwide.
“This is a state issue, that’s the point here, these are states’ issues,” she replied.
The back-and-forth comes after comments by Trump Wednesday in an interview where he said women should be punished for having illegal abortions.
The GOP front-runner has since walked back those comments.
“If Congress were to pass legislation making abortion illegal and the federal courts upheld this legislation, or any state were permitted to ban abortion under state and federal law, the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman,” his campaign said in a statement.
Watch the full Pierson-Camerota interview above.
