It’s a new day, so Donald Trump has a new position on abortion.
The Republican front-runner on Saturday is trying something rare: trying to walk back comments before the interview in which he made them even airs.
In a CBS News interview aired partially late Friday, Trump said “laws are set now on abortion and that’s the way they’re going to remain until they’re changed.”
“The laws are set,” Trump said. “And I think we have to leave it that way.”
But in a statement Saturday, Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said the real estate developer does want to change abortion laws, and hopes to name federal judges who undo women’s right to abort a pregnancy.
“Mr. Trump gave an accurate account of the law as it is today and made clear it must stay that way now — until he is president,” Hicks told the Washington Examiner. “Then he will change the law through his judicial appointments and allow the states to protect the unborn. There is nothing new or different here.”
That claim reverses the apparent meaning of Trump’s CBS statements, more than a day before the full interview in which he made them airs. It also offers a gift to Democrats working to raise money and win back control of the Senate by arguing that Republican senators refusing to hold a hearing on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland are working to let Trump pick the next high court justice.
Trump’s latest abortion stumbles came just days after he said that procuring abortions should be punished, drawing widespread condemnation and causing Trump to alter his stated view on abortion penalties.
His CBS remarks drew new attacks from conservatives.
“He has completely contradicted himself. If this is his position, he has just disqualified himself as the GOP nominee,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, head of the anti-abortion group the Susan B. Anthony List.
“At some point, the candidate’s words must stand on their own. What do you believe, Mr. Trump? No one knows,” Dannenfelser said in a statement.
Pro-life groups had roundly condemned Trump for his earlier statement that women should face penalties for having abortions. Opponents of abortion have long sought laws that penalize abortion providers, rather than women, for performing abortions.
Yet Trump has also faced stiff criticism from the Left, from Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton to pro-choice groups.
Following Trump’s remarks published Friday night, Ilyse Hogue, head of the pro-choice group NARAL Pro-Choice America, agreed that Trump has cast doubt on his true intentions.
Trump has “all over the place this week” Hogue said in comments reported by Fox News.
