DeSantis’s campaign targets Trump over abortion comments

Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis’s campaign targeted former President Trump for his comments on abortion during a new interview with NBC News.

The DeSantis War Room account attacked Trump on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, for “selling out conservatives” to win praise from “corporate media or the Left.” 

“Trump says he will compromise with Democrats on abortion so that they’re nice to him: ‘Both sides are going to like me. Then he says it’s “a terrible thing” babies with heartbeats are protected in Iowa, Florida, and South Carolina. Ron DeSantis will never sell out conservatives to win praise from corporate media or the Left.” 

DeSantis’s communications director Andrew Romeo piled on the platform, saying Trump’s compromises with the Democrats brought “disastrous results” during his term.   

“We’ve already seen the disastrous results of Donald Trump compromising with Democrats: over $7 trillion in new debt, an unfinished border wall, and the jailbreak First Step Act letting violent criminals back on to the streets,” Romeo wrote. “Republicans across the country know that Ron DeSantis will never back down.” 

The campaign’s pushback followed an interview that aired Sunday with “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in which Trump said: “What’s going to happen is you’re going to come up with a number of weeks or months, you’re going to come up with a number that’s going to make people happy. Because 92 percent of the Democrats don’t want to see abortion after a certain period of time.”

Welker then asked if Trump would sign a 15-week ban, after previously asking if he would sign a 15-week complete ban. 

“Well, people are starting to think of 15 weeks, that seems to be a number that people are talking about right now,” Trump said. “I would sit down with both sides, and I’d negotiate something and we’ll end up with peace in that issue for the first time in 52 years. I’m not going to say I would or I wouldn’t.” 

Trump used the exchange to go after the Florida governor’s six-week ban, a policy that was signed in April. 

“I mean ‘DeSanctus’ was willing to sign a five-week and six-week ban,” Trump said. “I think what he did was a terrible thing and a terrible mistake. But we’ll come up with a number. But at the same time, Democrats won’t be able to go out and six months, seven months, eight months and allow an abortion.”