Dick Morris seemed to be doing a bit of foreshadowing in an April 6 Newsmax TV appearance:
Author and political analyst Dick Morris told Newsmax on Saturday that as a result of Roe v. Wade being overturned, people are “learning that women do have access to abortions” and that “the number of abortions in the United States rose 10% this year.”
On Monday, Florida’s Supreme Court upheld the state’s 15-week abortion ban but also left open the possibility of the procedure being protected by a ballot measure to be voted on in November.
[…]Morris noted that former President Donald Trump’s proposal of a 15-week threshold for abortions “echoes the consensus that most Americans have.”
“Anyone who wants an abortion can get it. They can cross state lines. And there’s no way that’s gonna be illegal because the court has ruled each state makes its own rule. Federalism really is working here,” he said during an appearance on “The Count.”
Indeed, a few days later, Trump announced that he would not pursue a nationwide abortion ban if elected president and that individual states should be free to draft their own laws. Newsmax left the original announcement to a wire article, then followed it with an article by Mark Swanson noting Trump’s criticism of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham for being a “hardliner” on the issue, as well as a TV appearance by Trump toady Matthew Whitaker declaring Trump’s announcement to be a “very clear position.”
But it also published a few articles critical of Trump. An article by the apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy noted Graham’s objections to Trump’s abortion stance, and an article by Michael Katz reported that “Former Vice President Mike Pence criticized former President Donald Trump’s position on abortion Monday, calling it a ‘retreat’ on the right to life and a ‘slap in the face’ to anti-abortion Americans.” Another article, by the apparently uniroincally named Charlie McCarthy, noted that the head of an anti-abortion group “was quick to accuse Trump of ceding debate on the issue to Democrats.” But Newsmax also made sure to have on a Trump toady to smack Pence around for disagreeing with Trump:
Karoline Leavitt, the national press secretary for former President Donald Trump’s campaign, pushed back at criticism leveled by his former vice president, Mike Pence, over Trump’s position on abortion.
Her comments came during a Tuesday interview on Newsmax’s “National Report.”
“With all due respect for Mike Pence, he did not receive more than 1% of polling in the Republican presidential primary. So I won’t waste more than one minute of my time talking about his comments. Clearly, voters don’t care.”
Gotta bring things back into pro-Trump balance, after all.