He’s gloating now.
Having quite possibly successfully pressured Kennedy into retirement, with a great deal of weird interrelationships between himself, his sons, Kennedy’s son at Deutsche Bank, and looking for a “close-out” 5th conservative justice to ensure that any Mueller case/questions that go up to the SCOTUS turn out “his way,” Trump is already mugging it up for the cameras, mainlining the power rush he feels when he can sit in front of cameras and talk about the shocking changes he can impose upon the country at his whim.
Trump went on Fox News Sunday for an interview with Maria Bartiromo, we have excerpts via Crooks and Liars.Â
“Are you going to ask your nominees beforehand how they might vote on Roe v. Wade?” Bartiromo wondered.
“Well, that’s a big one,” Trump replied. “And probably not. They are all saying don’t do that. You don’t do that. You shouldn’t do that. But I’m putting conservative people on.”
The first five words is the correct answer. Yes, he will in fact be asking, “that’s a big one,” then he gives a nod to the “correct” answer, remembering that he shouldn’t be asking how judges will rule. Then he closes out his statement with a “It doesn’t matter, because the only people I’ll consider are the ones that I know for a fact will absolutely vote to overrule Roe v. Wade.
Irony alert for a moment. Is there any doubt in your mind that at some point in time in his life Trump has paid a woman to have an abortion? When he needed an abortion to happen, it got done. Now, he needs to allow states to outlaw them for women within that state – which will undoubtedly happen in well over half the states. (Keep in mind, that in every state, very wealthy women will always be able to have “female problems” and have their doctor do a “procedure,” we are only talking about poor women now, who will not be able to travel, or pay their private physician for a “procedure.”)
Bartiromo noted that while he campaigned, he specifically advocated for overturning Roe v. Wade, though she failed to bring up that he advocated punishing women who have abortions, but she is a Fox anchor now, and Fox anchors don’t dare bring up sore spots in Trump’s past, of any kind. Trump again made no attempt to hide this train’s destination:
“Well, maybe some day it will be to the states,” Trump opined. “You never know how that’s going to turn out. That’s a very complex question. The Roe v. Wade is probably the one that people are talking about in terms of having an effect. But we will see what happens. But it could very well end up with states at some point.
It is actually not a very complex question. Either there is a right to privacy buried in the 14th Amendment or there isn’t, and for years conservative judges have been itching to reverse the idea that the constitution encompasses a “right to privacy,” which is the basis of Roe v. Wade.
Conservative judges much prefer to spend their time legislating from the bench in finding ways that “money equals speech,” finding ways that certain spending is protected by the First Amendment. But, the 14th Amendment, the “Due Process” clause that had been read to stand for the fact that there exist some areas of people’s lives, so intimate, so private, that there is no “due process” by which a state can regulate that private/intimate area of life, i.e. birth control, abortion, right to marry, that notion will soon be sealed up, and the states will be back in the business of legally controlling what women (and men) can and can’t do with their bodies.
Trump knows exactly what he is doing.
The irony is that the only “life,” for which Trump is “pro,” is his own. That is precisely why he wants to end Roe v. Wade and end it now. Trump knows that Mueller is coming, fast. Trump needs to be such a hero to the Evangelical and pro-life right that it truly won’t matter if Trump conspired with Russia. They won’t care. They will protect him. If it took a president who conspired with Russia to end abortion, they’ll take it all day, and he knows it.
That’s why he must get the message out now. It’s why Kennedy was likely pressured to retire – as we’re finding out with more clarity every day – because Trump needs his army mobilized prior to the mid-terms, and prior to Mueller’s report. He didn’t need to do this interview, he didn’t need to announce when he would be making the announcement on the new nominee (since when do presidents do that?), but he did, knowing that he needs protection against Mueller’s allegations.
I wrote yesterday that Mueller must move now, and this is the reason. Trump is mobilizing everything he has, knowing that if he has control of the nominee who will end abortion, he could stand up and say that yes, indeed, he and Vlad talk daily and Vlad gives him advice to follow, his supporters will only cheer louder. It is also quite likely that Trump will ask for “loyalty” from whomever he nominates. Given that he will only interview 4-5 nominees, ones that will be from the far right “Trumpiverse” and would certainly not “tell” on him (like Comey), does anyone doubt that Trump will ask the nominee how he/she feels about presidential investigations, and “hoaxes”?
Mueller must beat Trump to the punch and steal Trump’s legitimacy before it is ever baked-in with this 5th SCOTUS pick.
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As a Canadian I have been closely following the disaster that has been happening in the US . This article gives the best reason why Trump feels he needs to appoint his next justice – you are right the evangelicals will forgive everything if Roe vs Wade is gone. And what a tragedy for women in this day and age to have to give back decades of progress.
I can never understand why people are against abortion – but many of those same people are for cutting back social services for kids. Nobody is forcing anyone to have an abortion – just the right to choose.