Matthew Dowd: Trump Would Have Been Better Off Going for a 15-Week or a 16-Week Federal Policy on Abortion

DIAZ-BALART: “Matthew, do you think this in any way, helped Trump with people who maybe, you know, were not thinking of supporting him?”
DOWD: “No. I mean, I actually think he’s taken the worst possible political position, which is amazing, when they think — as Garrett was reporting, they think at Mar-a-Lago, he took a good political position. Here’s what’s going to happen. One, I agree with Victoria, it’s still going to motivate Democrats in the course of this. So Democrats are still going to be motivated. Two, it’s going to demotivate part of Donald Trump’s base as already evidenced by some of the things they’ve said where they wanted a federal ban and they wanted to get rid of abortion, not only in places like Texas border but California and New York. So it’s going to demotivate part of his base. And three, he still is going to have to answer the question every time a state does something that — that restricts abortion on this, because he’s opened the door to say states can do whatever they want. That means he’s going to have to answer well, do you agree with what Florida did? Do you agree with what Texas did? Do you agree with Alabama? Do you agree with Mississippi? And so I think — and then I don’t often agree with Lindsey Graham, but from a political perspective, he would have been better off I think, going for a 15-week or a 16-week federal policy on this because, it can still motivate his base, and there are some swing voters that agree with that line. But I think he’s taken the worst possible political position.”