Trump Accuses Carson of Flip Flopping on Abortion
Pot, meet kettle
I think it’s safe to say we’ve reached peak primary with this one.
Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump accused fellow candidate Ben Carson of changing his position on abortion.
The Washington Times reported:
“You look at different things having to do with Ben and there’s a lot of contradiction and a lot of questions. We’ll have to see,” Mr. Trump said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “One thing I know about a front-runner — you get analyzed 15 different ways from China, and a lot of things will come out.”
“You know, like Ben was — he was pro-abortion not so long ago, as everybody has told me, I don’t know it personally, but that’s what … I’ve been told,” Mr. Trump said. “And all of a sudden he’s so hard on abortion, under no circumstances, virtually, can there be exceptions. And you say, well how does that happen where you’re pro — not long ago, by the way — and then all of a sudden you can’t even have exceptions. So that’s [an] unusual stance and I think people will look at that and they’ll look at lots of others things, including what happened in hospitals and what he was working on, and a lot of things I hear. I just don’t actually get it.”
“But I give credit, but I don’t get it,” Mr. Trump said.
A Carson campaign spokesman said Mr. Carson’s pro-life credentials are “well chronicled” and that Mr. Trump’s assessment is incorrect.
During an August appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Mr. Carson said he makes no bones about the fact that he used to be a Democrat.
“I used to be a pretty left-wing Democrat, in fact,” the retired doctor said. “Over the course of time, my views have changed very dramatically.”
“In 1992, I personally was against abortion, but I was not for causing anybody else to do anything,” Mr. Carson said. “I was pro-choice in that region.”
That was a reference to a push on a ballot initiative involving abortion in Maryland that he had become involved with, before later telling people not to vote one way or the other but to simply educate themselves.
“I’ve changed because I’ve learned a lot of things,” Mr. Carson said. “And I [began] to think about, if abolitionists a long time ago had said, ‘I don’t believe in slavery, but anybody else can do it if they want to,’ where would we be today? So, that changed my opinion of a lot of things.”
Carson is not the only one to have changed his views on abortion. Not so long ago, Donald Trump was once not only ardently pro-choice, but pro-partial birth abortion. Here’s Trump in 1999:
Trump has admitted his position on the sanctity of life for the unborn has changed over the years, so it’s odd he’s now picking at Carson for having a similar enlightenment.
More likely, Trump is responding to a bevy of new polling data showing Carson surging in key states, the way Trump seems to respond — by lashing out.
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Comments
“Trump has admitted his position on the sanctity of life for the unborn has changed over the years, so it’s odd he’s now picking at Carson for having a similar enlightenment.”
Ah, Kemberlee, I love that dry sense of humor you have! What a card!
It is true that a reasonable person, grappling with extremely complex issues over time, will say different things in response to different questions.
It is also true that politicians can and should be primed to accept a differing viewpoint, when there is genuine substance to it.
It is further true that abortion is the “third rail” as far as many nominal Democratic voters are concerned. They will trade national security and economic freedom for protection of abortion rights and free contraception. They are very emotional about this.
“And I [began] to think about, if abolitionists a long time ago had said, ‘I don’t believe in slavery, but anybody else can do it if they want to,’ where would we be today? So, that changed my opinion of a lot of things.”
Keep using that whole quote. There is a lot to unpack in those two sentences.
He did. To his credit.
As Dr. Carson has changed his views on the 2nd Amendment, on amnesty, and many other issues critical to the American people.
My main beef with Dr. Carson is this – and his stance on the federal government’s hands/fingers/hooks in the public schools of this country.
He believes in education – and has a fantastic foundation he supports for poverty-stricken students, as well as personal story to show why – and he’s absolutely right, on the surface. However, he firmly believes in federal funding and involvement in public schools, which is NOT a federal issue. The Constitution clearly allocates education to the states by NOT giving this power to the federal government in the Constitution’s enumerated powers. The 10th Amendment thus applies: it belongs to the STATES and the PEOPLE. When Carter approved the Dept. of Education, he fought against this very argument – and, of course, he got his way. The result: failure. Absolute, abject, spectacular failure of our public schools.
Another problem I have with the brilliant Dr. Carson (and that is the truth: the man is a brilliant, admirable, humble man, a hero in my eyes) is the great unknown: is he willing to stand on these newly-found ideals and principles? Would he fall back, and punt, to his prior more liberal ways? He is untested, so there is no way to know.
And we can’t afford to test those principles on-the-job. Not this time. We NEED someone we KNOW will stand on principle, not cave or cower, not fall back on old beliefs. There is no time to lose this go round – it’s more urgent than ever, IMHO.
Ah Trump. The true “I’ve evolved” candidate.
He’s more like one of those shape-shifters on the early Star Trek.
HEH…!!!
It seems simple enough … one big appeal of Carson in Iowa is that he is “so Christian”. So Trump just points out that Carson is not so pure after all.
Carson more recently became a Republican, like just a year ago, presumably after he became a star by mildly confronting Obama at that breakfast. He saw an opportunity to run, and to make money on his book, and appearances, etc. He seems to awkwardly stumble in presenting his non PC positions, such as stating how people come out of prison “gay”, as a way to present his (legit) view that one can choose gay sex, rather than it being genetic like eye color.
Carson also told NPR he would not raise the debt ceiling, but work with Congress to make cuts. NPR insisted that would be defaulting on our current debt (and basically mocked him over it), which is nonsense. All we have to do is pay current interest to not default, and none of our many shutdowns came close. Carson didn’t understand that very well either, but neither did the genius at NPR, nor most of the media.
A larger sequester style cut would be a good idea, if done strategically. But it is probably political suicide to ever mention exactly what freebies would be cut, so we will have to cross the Rubicon while falling down the rabbit hole, before real change occurs. That time is approaching … kicking the can and all that …
Look Carson is not going to be the nominee so I don’t know why Trump cares about him. He is the Rick Santorum of 2015. It’s going to come down to Rubio, Cruz and Trump. Everyone else is a pretender.
Keep in mind that at the time Dr. Carson was in medical school Roe v. Wade reflected a great many reputable physicians’ attitudes towards abortion. The breakthroughs in DNA analysis, ultrasound imaging, pre-natal surgery and neo-natal intensive care all came much later.
Harry Blackmun had been resident counsel for the Mayo Clinic in the 50s and later described those years as the happiest in his lie. According to friends who live in the area, Blackmun continued to maintain a residence in Rochester, Minnesota. Indeed, while Associate Justice he attended a seminar my friend put together at the Federal prison medical center in Rochester. When assigned to write the decision in Roe, Blackmun consulted his many physician friends for guidance.
Donald Trump has flip-flopped on so many issues that are important to conservatives that I would think he’d want to stay away from accusing others of the same behavior, as if it’s a bad thing to change your mind or as if that somehow disqualifies you. It’s not just abortion, it’s the second amendment, immigration, all sorts of things.
He’s only recently “evolved” from supporting gun control to being a strong supporter of the second amendment, for instance, and no one really knows how committed he is to his new position; and what will he say if someone asks him about declarations like this?
“I probably identify more as Democrat,” Trump told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “It just seems that the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans.”
He’s on shaky ground trying to smear others for their “flip flops.” I guess he’s counting on his supporters being too blinded by his sheer Trumpiness to ask any serious questions.
I’m surprised that Trump haters haven’t jumped up and down on his comments about visas, which not only contradicted his own web site but showed that Trump was unfamiliar with his web site. I’m a Cruz guy, but Trump was backup. Now I have my doubts.