Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis reportedly will seek to suggest he is stronger on saving lives of the unborn, but former President Donald Trump told Newsmax on Tuesday there is no state abortion laws without his doing.
"First of all, I'm the one that got rid of Roe v. Wade and everybody said that was an impossible thing to do," Trump told Tuesday's "Rob Schmitt Tonight" in an exclusive 15-minute phone interview.
"It's been now brought back to the states, and what I've done is I've given the pro-life people — who are wonderful people and loving people — I've given them the power of negotiation, because now they're able to negotiate something that's going to be very important, and I put them in a position now."
Trump hailed the confirmation of three conservative justices during his administration — "very few people have been had that privilege, the honor" — who "happen to believe that Roe v. Wade should not be there," effectively usurping states rights on abortion law.
"DeSantis, or Ron DeSanctimonious as I call him, he came out with the six weeks" abortion restriction in Florida, Trump continued. "Other people agree with it, and a lot of people don't."
But DeSantis has Trump to thank for all of it, and Trump vows "to be leading the charge" on setting future law and precedent on where the line on rights for the unborn should be in America.
"We're in the position now where we can get something that the whole country can agree with and that's only because I got us out of the Roe v. Wade, where the pro-life people had absolutely nothing to say."
Restricting abortions and protecting the unborn is not a "radical" position, according to Trump, knowing abortion is a Democrat election rally cry for votes.
"If you talk about radical, the radicals are the people that want to kill the baby, literally after birth," Trump told host Rob Schmitt, noting Democrats formerly were able to support late-term and even partial-birth abortions under Roe v. Wade.
"These are the radical people, not pro-life people."
Trump noted DeSantis is losing support for moving fast on his abortion restrictions, even if he might agree with them personally.
"You know, Ron, if you take a look, he's losing women voters like crazy," Trump warned.
"Now, I don't do it for the women, for the men, I do what's right."
Trump said being able to restore states' rights on abortion and "doing what's right" for the country is helping him surge to a huge lead in early GOP primary polls and even leading the incumbent President Joe Biden.
"I think it's why I'm leading him by 40-50 points, and you see that, and I'm leading Biden by 11 points," Trump said. "I do what's right for the country, but I gave the pro-life people — and I'm the only one, again, I'm the only one that ever did was I able to.
"There's nobody that thought it was possible to do what I did with Roe v. Wade and now because of what I did, we have a very powerful negotiating position — more powerful, frankly, than the other side.
"When we had Roe v. Wade, we had no power whatsoever. They were killing babies 7 months, 8 months, 9 months, and after birth, OK? We had no power. Now we have tremendous power. We actually have the edge, and we'll pick something that's going to be very, very good for pro-life."
Trump said even pro-life people say DeSantis might have gone too far to limit abortions to six weeks.
"Many pro-life people, you know, they're talking about more weeks than what Ron is talking about," Trump continued. "But I'm going to decide, and I'm going to be in there pushing."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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