Vice President Kamala Harris pushed back on a journalist’s assertion that Donald Trump will not instate a federal abortion ban if re-elected, saying his word should not be trusted.
For months, Harris has warned Americans that Trump will go to greater lengths to restrict reproductive freedoms than he already has, pointing to plans laid out in Project 2025 – a document created by The Heritage Foundation to which Trump has multiple ties.
The former president has promised he wouldn’t do so while distancing himself from Project 2025.
Despite that, Harris has continued to push the claim. During an interview over the weekend, CBS Evening News host Norah O’Donnell questioned the truth of Harris’s claim.
“When you argue that Donald Trump, if elected, would put forward a national abortion –,” O’Donnell began.
“Just read Project 2025,” Harris interjected.
“The former president said that’s not true,” O’Donnell said.
Obviously frustrated, Harris responded, “He says everything. C’mon, are we really taking his word for it?”
“He said that women should be punished, he has been all over the place on this. But I’m too busy watching what he’s doing to see what he has said,” Harris said.
A pillar of the vice president’s campaign is fighting for reproductive rights and the threat Trump poses to that. She told CBS her priority, if elected, is reinstating federal abortion protections.
She holds Trump directly responsible for taking those away after nominating three conservative justices to the Supreme Court with the intent of overturning Roe.
But in recent months the former president has softened his stance on abortion access, in order to appeal to moderate voters who may be concerned about abortion rights. His change of heart has ultimately weakened Harris’s point.
But Trump does have a history of making inconsistent remarks about abortion.
During his 2020 presidential campaign, Trump called himself “pro-life” and voiced support for a federal abortion ban without mentioning exceptions.
As recent as of March of this year, Trump signaled support for a federal 15-week ban.
But recently, he said he would not support a federal ban and believes in abortion rights with some exceptions such as in cases of rape, incest or to save the mother’s life.
Over the last three years, he’s taken credit for abortion being turned back to the States thanks to his Supreme Court justice appointments.
At the same time, he’s made inconsistent remarks about state abortion bans, calling the Florida six-week ban “too short” and also saying “We need more than six weeks."
Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign national press secretary previously reporters: “President Trump has long been consistent in supporting the rights of states to make decisions on abortion and has been very clear that he will NOT sign a federal ban when he is back in the White House.”
But Harris does, and will, continue to raise concerns about Trump keeping his promise.
“We have seen extraordinary harm and pain and suffering happen because of what Donald Trump did in intending and effectuating overturning Roe v. Wade,” Harris told CBS.
