Race. Recent from a clear trump the advantage to no clear leader plus donald trump caught between a rock and a hard place. His track record on abortion, he would veto but abortion ban that was sent to your desk well, what's happening is you're never going to have to do it. And voters support for fertility treatments. I kept hearing that i'm against it and i'm actually very much forward. And triggers conservative theory in the process. And what she left unsaid same old, tired playbook. Next question harris declines to enter the chat why she's ignoring the debate over trump, race, and gender live at the table. Nayyera huck mike dubke chuck rocha and shermichael singleton. Welcome to a special edition of newsnight, state of the race good evening. I'm audie cornish in new york. Abby phillip has the night off, so let's get right to what america is talking about. Where exactly does donald trump stand on abortion? the answer would depend on whether you asked him yesterday or today for example, right now, his home state, florida, has a sixweek abortion ban last night, he was asked about a ballot measure that would amend the law and give women up to 24 weeks to make that decision. Here's how he answered so you'll vote in favor of the amendment. I'm voting that i am going to be voting, that we need more than six weeks the backlash from antiabortion activists was immediate conservative radio host erick erickson, for example. I have never, and i will never vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights donald trump came very close to sounding like he does yesterday and if he loses in november yesterday, august 29 in the year of our lord, 2024 will be the day he lost. If he doesn't do some damage control pretty quickly so message received, trump's answer to the same question a day later, a bit more nuanced are you voting yes or no on amendment four in florida? so i think six weeks you need more time. Six weeks. I've disagreed with that right from the early primary here's what i heard about it. I disagreed with it at the same time, the democrats are radical because the nine months is just a ridiculous situation that where you can do an abortion and then the ninth month and some of the states like minnesota and other states have it where you could actually execute the baby after birth. And all of that stuff is so i'll be voting no for that reason there is no state were executing a baby after birth is legal the harriswalz campaign released a statement tonight, making it clear that they believe his final answer is the one there'll be campaigning on saying in part, donald trump just made his position on abortion very clear. He will vote to uphold an abortion ban. So extreme, it applies before many women even know they are pregnant. So we are here with our panel to talk about this discussion. So mike, i want to talk to you because obviously you've worked with the trump white house you were there at the time when they had really solidified support from the antiabortion activists movement that the backs of that movement. So do you see a shift? do i see a shift in the president's position? know this has never been a this has never been an issue that he has wanted to discuss outside really outside of talking about the three supreme court justices that he appointed, my issue with this frankly, from right now, and i think the reason we're talking about it tonight is because there for are these perceived shifts in in his answer. And the enthusiasm on this issue is shifted from the prolife to the prochoice movement because of the decision on overturning roe my advice to any political candidate on this is pick your position and stick to it the winds are going to have here's where it gets complicated, because trump and vance have backed down on the national abortion ban idea, a crackdown on abortion pills and restrictions on ivf. So i know you want to jump in here. Give me a sense of how this could be perceived, how to talk about, because you're, you're working with a lot of congressional lawmakers who are trying to win some race. It reminded me of what my granddaddy was teaching me how to do efficient, not when i was a little boy. There's a lot of twists and a turns and the reason that is is because this is their achilles heel, because, because of what donald trump did with the supreme court and because people know that women been a really bad and there's one thing i know was a 55yearold man. You don't want to get mad with a bunch of women because they're going to vote and show up. And that's what they've been doing. Yeah you say you but you just got married, so i know that these are lessons you just taken on board chair michael for you, you're often the person who says like, look, this isn't exactly what he's saying. His positions have in a way, always been moderate. Maybe this is a return to the mean for him. I mean, look, i think the former president has never had a clear and decisive thought process on abortion. Well he might supreme court justices, they will. Yeah, i think that's a bit, i think politics. My justices i understand that, but i don't think in ideological philosophical beliefs he is of the mindset that i'm either pro, or pro life rather a prochoice. I don't know if he thinks about it in those terms. With that said, i do think the prolife community has to recognize that the political tides was shifting on this particular issue from abortion rights to ivf. There are some that did not like his response on that issue. I think that's a bit problematic it's not enough to win elections if you're turning off a sizable percent of voters who may agree with you on economics, on immigration, on foreign policy. But this one particular issue you've crystallized that support for the other side. That's just not good electoral let the man talk about this omar. I will say that the majority of the american public consistently since roe v. Wade was passed has supported the right to an abortion. Now, what has been represented at the state level has a certain side of the american population that maybe wasn't so hyper partisan and focused on this one issue, perhaps was asleep if at the wheel for some time that can be argued, but in terms of the actual politics of this general mass consensus, as abortion, as health care, it has been welcomed. Or we can say it this way. We've got a poll here, then nodes who, who voters think would be better to handle the issue and of course that is to harris, 55% of 38% quinnipiac also asked about whether or not it was extremely important in the choice for president among likely voters always like to underscore that and for democrats, of course, 53%, but independents, 27%. Is that what abortion rights activists are counting on? they are counting on women who have not been participating in the same rate potentially has previously the majority of the american public right now is unaffiliated. So they're not part, they don't identify along partisan lines, but they identify on issues and abortion as health care is turning out not just suburban women, but their spouses. The challenges that they're facing in the doctor's office, the fact that something as miraculous as ivf is now potentially on the chopping block as being illegal. Waltz discussion and second guessing his resume and like you to jump in here, does that distract from the numbers you asked that because that gets to the idea of if somebody slips on one letter in a medical term, suddenly everything they're saying about that as wrong a man standing up there and talking about fertility in the family is a very important conversation for americans to hear this is about strike is one of the big shifts culturally, mike. Yeah. Well, i was just going to say going back to ivf, we're not talking about is the policy position that the trump campaign took yesterday or the day before in terms of funding, ivf which was wild, which was to say, i'm going to write like the government traditionally conservative but i think it's a tacit recognition by the campaign that they need to get an, they need to wrap their arms around this issue because i'm sure michael said it's not a sincere belief and to have like, health care and report productive rights for women's bodies not be a sincerely held belief is a problem that is definitely not what i said. I said i said the former in terms of philosophe family's issue, i don't think it's rooted exactly. That means he doesn't have a philosophical belief about whether or not women play devil's advocate here, there's another way that someone might interpret that, which is, well, maybe i don't need to worry so much about what donald trump is going to do on abortion because we all know he's not it's not that big a deal this is why you see this. You see people acting abnormally. Beth, let me promise you one thing in a campaign is they're just out there saying things every now and then donald trump will. That's why a lot of people hate him and loved him, but caused the polling says this in every wray said, i'm working in across the country. It's one of the top three issues, but also donald trump knows he has to have his base to, and has to have a lot of new people show up as well. But this avy or another's is a big deal and a big issue. Obviously, quite surprised that you're saying it's one of the top three issues because i've now every single race i i i am flabbergasted by that because the polling that i've seen i check you, but they have a graphic, so i have to show what it's my duty, it's as issues most important to voters. And this this is from late august quinnipiac, but abortion, while high, it's not the top. Let me factcheck you own this. In fact, check all right? friday night when easily go look at every campaign is being run right now online of what the tv ads are in every single congressional district in america, the abortion at is the hearing. Every democrat is running an issue on abortion that doesn't mean it's one of the top three issues that wouldn't be running if it wasn't working certainly what you're voting for is different than what the vulnerability isn't about public and side it's a negative campaign. Lawyers point, we if we can put that graphic up again, number three is scotus. And i have to think abortion also has to do with that. And why is trump running away from his own record and his own no i really want to hear this when i run away from what was a success for the antiabortion movement, it was a success. Is it enough to move voters in the medal over the economy, over immigration? i'm not convinced that, yeah, it excites democrats. I would agree with you on that point. I think voters in pennsylvania are not going to be moved by reproductive they have rights. But we know where they are because doug mastriano really basically no, doug mastriano was not a good candidate though. He talked about we had a better candidate. We probably would have performed better in that race correctly, right? i mean, he was a won almost a one issue candidate. Was that and that's generally one issue candidates do not perform or two election cycles, we've used this as a motivational factor for election cycle i've done this for years and i've seen the republicans do it on the other side pretty well as well like this is something that both parties have fought against what proceed totally concede that the enthusiasm on this issue after jang of roe is on the prochoice on the democrats side for this issues known as backlash man telling me, yeah. Yeah. But yeah. It does win back their potentially over why you have activists who are trying to put these constitutional amendment on these state constitutional on the ballot does undermine their effort. If the guy who said leave it to the states can't answer a question about his own state. This is a comms question i think he has to my preferred way if she what i said at the very beginning, pick up position and stick to it because the voters are going to respect your your values on this position and much more so than going back and forth and back and whether you were for fracking against fracking, you know, that kind of thing. Well, like i'm prolife and when we say that, i think we need to be clear on what that means. And a lot of people look at republicans and it's okay, you antiabortion. So if someone has a child, are you going to support policies to help that individual take care of the child? what does that partnership look? like? and we need to roll that out as conservatives to say, we will be with you if you're struggling to have a child does not affect not sure. We haven't necessarily done that and we knew that that would be a wonderful prolife and pro family policy. It is not what we've seen the republican party do in congress. And in fact, the ability to even, it went to the senate and j. D. Vance voted down the idea of making ivf something that was accessible to most people remember at the tiny arguments there from senators was we don't need to do this because it's not actually in jeopardy, but i understand as a message vote, it was a difficult one. Please stay with us because we're going to talk about some other issues because we are in the final stretch of the 2024 campaign new polling shows that it's still anyone's race, and we're gonna have a special guests will join us in our fifth seats. Discuss, stay with us harris, donald trump, the debate, everyone's been waiting for follows cnn for complete coverage and exclusive pre and postdebate analysis. A cnn special event. B, abc news presidential debate simulcast september 10 at nine on cnn and streaming on max, the tv moments that took culturure over thehe edge. 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