After weeks of refusing to commit to a decision, and after appearing to be confused about how ballot initiatives work, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump late Friday afternoon, as the holiday weekend kicked off, announced how he will vote on a ballot initiative in his home state of Florida that would protect the right to abortion. Experts say his decision reflects how he would respond to a nationwide abortion ban as president should he win back the White House.

“So, I think six weeks, you need more time, six weeks – I’ve disagreed with that right from the early primaries, when I heard about it I disagreed with it,” Trump said (video below). “At the same time the Democrats are radical because the nine months is just a ridiculous situation, where you can do an abortion in the ninth month and you know some of the states like Minnesota are so radical where you can actually execute the baby after birth. And all of that stuff is unacceptable.”

“So I’ll be voting ‘no’ for that reason,” Trump declared, saying he will vote against protecting the right to abortion, and to support Florida’s near-total, six-week abortion ban.

It is not legal in Minnesota, or any state, to execute the baby after birth.

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The Florida abortion ballot initiative would allow abortion until the fetus is viable, similar to abortion under Roe v. Wade. It does not legalize abortion up until or after birth.

Trump’s apparent misunderstanding of the ballot measure was evident earlier this week.

On Thursday, Trump told a reporter he would be voting to extend the number of weeks under which abortion would be legal, saying he would vote to make it longer than six weeks. “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks,” he said. The ballot initiative is a yes or no question.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes framed Trump’s response in a more general direction, appearing to suggest what Trump might do if elected President: “Just to be clear, Trump now says he will vote to UPHOLD Florida’s SIX WEEK abortion ban.”

“Which makes sense,” Hayes continued, “because he supports abortion bans! He got Roe overturned and he’s the head of a party that wants to criminalize abortion nation-wide.”

Semafor Washington Bureau chief Benny Sarlin said, “Trump comes out against abortion rights amendment a day after he sounded so close to supporting it that social conservatives thought it was an endorsement.”

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CNN senior political commentator David Axelrod observed, “In 24 hours, Trump does a 180 on FL abortion rights referendum, after its opponents pull his chain. Same thing happened when he was POTUS, and flirted with common sense gun safety laws, until the NRA swept into the WH for an emergency reindoctrination.”

Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler added: “Florida has a 6 week abortion ban. A ballot initiative would repeal it. Trump says he’s voting no. Trump is pro-ban.”

Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett noted, “There it is. Trump supports states passing total abortion bans. No question he will sign a national abortion ban if it’s put on his desk.”

Watch below or at this link.

Donald Trump says he will be voting NO on Florida’s abortion amendment: pic.twitter.com/K1yypsbVEj

— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) August 30, 2024

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The Harris campaign is blasting Donald Trump’s “lies” about in-vitro fertilization after the ex-president said on Thursday if elected he will order the federal government or insurance companies to pay for the cost of IVF. That claim mirrors several Democratic bills, including legislation Senate Republicans blocked in June. He also vowed to help parents with newborns deduct costs from their taxes, a proposal similar to part of Harris’s broad economic plan to help families lower expenses.

“Donald Trump’s own platform could effectively ban IVF and abortion nationwide,” the Harris-Walz campaign said in a statement Thursday evening. “Trump lies as much if not more than he breathes, but voters aren’t stupid. Because Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, IVF is already under attack and women’s freedoms have been ripped away in states across the country.”

As NCRM reported last month, the Republican National Committee’s new platform, mentioned by the Harris campaign in its statement, paves the way for fetal personhood, which would be in direct conflict with both abortion and IVF.

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Trump’s IVF announcement came in a “chaotic, self-aggrandizing speech in Potterville, Michigan,” and “which he had more or less spoiled in a pre-speech interview with NBC,” according to The New Republic,

“Because we want more babies, to put it nicely,” Trump told a group of about 100 people at Alro Steel. “And for this same reason, we will also allow new parents to deduct major newborn expenses from their taxes. So that parents that have a beautiful baby… will be able… so, we’re pro-family, nobody’s ever said that before,” Trump said.

Two weeks ago Harris unveiled her economic plan, including “restoring the expanded child tax credit of up to $3,600 a child, which was put in place in 2021 amid the Covid-19 pandemic and expired at the end of that year,” the Wall Street Journal reported at the time. “She will also throw her support behind a new further expansion of the tax credit that would provide up to $6,000 in total relief for middle- and low-income families during the first year of a child’s life.”

Democrats in the Senate filed the “Right to IVF Act,” but Republicans blocked the bill which would have not only ensured the use of assisted reproductive technology techniques are protected as a right but would have “expanded access through insurance as well as for military members and veterans,” the Associated Press had reported. Two other bills, one in the House and one in the Senate, “mandate insurance coverage for IVF and other infertility treatments. It’s backed by ~25 House members and ~4 Senators. All of them are Democrats,” Bloomberg’s Steven Dennis reported.

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Trump on Thursday falsely claimed to have been “in favor of IVF right from the beginning.” IVF this year has been an albatross around Republicans’ necks. Many Republicans, especially the religious right and those who hold anti-abortion views equate IVF with abortion.

In his rambling interview with NBC News on Thursday, Trump said, “Well, as you know, I was always for IVF right from the beginning, as soon as we heard about it, it’s fertilization, and it’s helping women and men and families, but it’s helping women able to have a baby.”

“Some have great difficulty,” Trump added, “and a lot of them have been very happy with the results as you know and what we’re doing, and we’re doing this because we just think it’s great. And we need great children, beautiful children in our country. We actually need them. And we are going to be under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment. So we are paying for that treatment,” he repeated, “or we’re going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.”

Watch Trump’s remarks below or at this link.

Former President Trump tells NBC News that if he’s re-elected, his administration would not only protect access to IVF, but would have either the government or insurance companies cover the cost of it.

More: https://t.co/ByO77cGtx8 pic.twitter.com/Liv2FgO2XT

— NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) August 29, 2024

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U.S. Senator JD Vance, the Republican nominee for Vice President, is refusing to apologize to a former Miss South Carolina Teen USA after using a clip of her infamous response to a question that went viral as an attack on Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Presidential nominee. When told that Caitlin (Caite) Upton had once contemplated suicide for the mocking she had been subjected to over that video, and asked if he would like to apologize, the Republican from Ohio said, “I’m not going to apologize.”

Upton later posted a statement (below) that in part reads, “online bullying needs to stop.”

On Thursday, ahead of CNN’s interview with Vice President Harris, Vance posted to social media the clip of Upton from the 2007 Miss Teen USA beauty pageant.

“BREAKING: I have gotten ahold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview,” Sen. Vance mockingly wrote in what is being called a “sexist dig.”

BREAKING: I have gotten ahold of the full Kamala Harris CNN interview. pic.twitter.com/c6nfcJrFJy

— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 29, 2024

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On Friday, CNN’s John Berman told Vance that Upton “had, you know, she struggled answering a question back in this beauty pageant. I’m not sure you’re aware, in 2015 Caitlin Upton did an interview in New York Magazine about all the social media attention this clip got, and she said, ‘I definitely went through a period where I was very, very depressed, but I never let anybody see that stuff, except for people I could trust. I had some very dark moments where I thought about committing suicide.’ So when you posted this last night, were you aware that the woman you were posting a picture of had contemplated committing suicide for the attention it received?”

“No,” Vance replied, “certainly not John, and my heart goes out to her, and I hope that she’s doing well. Look, I’ve said a lot of things on camera. I’ve said a lot of stupid things on camera. Sometimes, when you’re in the public eye, you make mistakes, and again, I think the best way to deal with it is to laugh at ourselves, laugh at this stuff, and try to have some fun in politics.”

After lamenting they were not discussing policy, Vance said, “there’s nothing that says that we can’t tell some jokes along the way while we deal with the very serious business of bringing back our public policy.”

He then complained, “Politics has gotten way too lame, John, way too boring. You can have some fun while making a good argument to the American people about how you’re going to improve their lives.”

Berman revisited his question, stating, “Okay, I just want to be clear, though you said you didn’t know. Would you like to apologize to Caitlin up there for posting that last night, given what you’ve now learned, John?”

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After a slight pause, Vance replied, “I’m not going to apologize for posting a joke, but I wish the best for Caitlin. I hope that she’s doing well. and again, what I’d say is one bad moment shouldn’t define anybody. And the best way to deal with this stuff is to laugh at ourselves.”

What Berman did not mention is that Caite Upton appears to be a MAGA supporter who, after her infamous answer, reportedly signed a lucrative contract with Donald Trump’s modeling agency.

At some point between Vance’s post and Friday morning, Upton set her Instagram account to private. But Friday morning on X she wrote: “It’s a shame that 17 years later this is still being brought up. There’s not too much else to say about it at this point. Regardless of political beliefs, one thing I do know is that social media and online bullying needs to stop.”

Watch Vance’s remarks below or at this link.

BERMAN: Last night you posted a clip from Ms Teen US 2007 — Caitlin Upton. When you posted that, were you aware she thought about committing suicide for the attention that received?

JD VANCE: No, certainly not.

B: Would you like to apologize?

V: I’m not going to apologize pic.twitter.com/tn7FYTS3v4

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 30, 2024

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