Lindsey Graham Dodges TWICE When Pressed By Kristen Welker On Whether He’ll Push Trump to Ban Abortion

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) twice evaded a question from NBC’s Kristen Welker Sunday about whether he would push former President Donald Trump to support a nationwide abortion ban if he is elected in November.

The issue has harmed Republicans in elections nationwide since 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the court’s five-decade-old decision permitting abortion access nationwide. Trump appointed three of the court’s justices and had previously credited himself with the issue being returned to individual states.

In recent months, Trump has pivoted on the issue, breaking with staunch anti-abortion activists and calling for the Republican Party to soften its stance in order to court female voters in November. Meanwhile, Graham previously criticized his party for not including a nationwide ban on abortions as part of the platform at last month’s Republican National Committee.

On Sunday’s Meet the Press, Welker reminded Graham of previous comments he made criticizing the platform and asked the senator if he would push Trump to embrace outlawing abortion procedures. Welker said:

We are all about watching the Democratic National Convention and I want to talk about what happened at the Republican National Convention. The Republicans rolled out their platform and on the issue of abortion, it did not call for a national abortion ban for the first time in 40 years. Senator, you, of course, have supported a 15-week national ban on abortion. Here’s what you said about the platform right before it was rolled out.

Welker then aired comments Graham made on July 5 in which he said, “If we change our platform and we buy into the narrative being pro-life is bad politics, being strong for the Second Amendment is bad politics, we’ll be net losers because the people who believe like we do are going to abandon us because we’ve abandoned what makes us different.”

In an exchange on the issue, Graham twice dodged after Welker asked him if he would pressure Trump to ban abortions. A transcript of the discussion reads:

WELKER: Senator, do you still think the party’s new position is a mistake?

GRAHAM: No, I think what they were able to do is thread a needle here. they talked about, you know, the unborn child has a constitutional right to life. President Trump is a states’ rights guy with the exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother. I believe most Americans want those exceptions. They’re opposing any law that makes a raped woman carry a child. Like 80 percent of Americans are against that. But also most Americans are against late-term abortion. But He’s our nominee. He believes the states’ rights approach is the way to go. The platform I’m okay with, and we’ll continue to have this discussion, but we’re not going to win or lose based on abortion. We’re going to win or lose based on can we change the policy trajectory of this country. Can we lower gas prices, can we control the border, can we lower your food prices and the good news is we can because we did. We’re not going to the Soviet Union playbook to fix the problems of America. We’re going to capitalism, American competition and entrepreneurship, and common sense to lower prices for America.

WELKER: Senator, would you advise Mr. Trump if he were to be elected to support a federal ban?

GRAHAM: I am going to keep being me. I think most Americans are opposed to late-term abortions.

WELKER: So is that a yes, senator? Is that a yes?

GRAHAM: Well, I’m going to keep saying that there should be – at some point, the baby feels pain. You know, our policy – in France, they limit abortion at 14 weeks. a 15-week ban doesn’t ban abortion. It protects unborn children from an excruciating death. This is a debate worth a great country to have. But this election will not be about abortion. It’s going to be about the economy and a world on fire. And the nightmare for Kamala Harris is to have to defend her policy choices and explain to the American people why the world is not on fire.

Watch above via NBC News.

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