I had never heard of Karoline Leavitt until about ten minutes before I sat down to write this.
I was reading an article on Crooks & Liars, one of my favorite sites for political news and commentary, when I came across her name. The article was titled “Trump’s Campaign Once Again Wishes He Would Shut Up,” and it was about the fact that the former president keeps talking about a national abortion ban.
Leavitt is Trump’s national press secretary, and she was doing her best to shoot down a rumor that Trump has been telling people he thinks there should be a national ban on abortions after 16 weeks with exceptions for rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.
“Know what I like about 16?” Trump reportedly mused. “It’s even. It’s four months.”
Even? That means nothing, and 16 weeks might be nearly four months, but it isn’t four months. There are 12 months in a year, so four months is a third of a year. And with 52 weeks in a year, a third of that is 17 1/3 weeks.
That’s four months.
At any rate, Leavitt called it “fake news,” and then came out with the most ridiculous response of all.
“As President Trump has stated, he would sit down with both sides and negotiate a deal that everyone will be happy with.”
Yes, because he was so good at that while he was in the White House. If there’s one thing certain about this issue, it’s that there is no compromise that will make everyone happy. There isn’t even a compromise that will make anyone happy.
Trump has been calling himself “the most pro-life president ever,” but I guarantee you that allowing abortions up to 16 weeks with exceptions after that will not please conservatives at all. It’s actually a more liberal position than the original ruling in Roe v Wade, which was largely about allowing first-trimester abortions.
And while 16 weeks with exceptions after that might make the pro-choice crowd sigh with relief in the present atmosphere, it certainly wouldn’t make them happy. Choice is choice, and while this may be difficult for the Trumpanzees to comprehend, not all mainstream religions believe life begins at conception.
As for negotiating a deal that will make everyone happy, he didn’t do anything of the sort in four years in Washington. He really would be better off keeping his mouth shut on this particular issue, but if he could do that, he wouldn’t be Donald Trump.
Maybe he needs a reminder to carry with him. One like Chuck Lumley gave to Bill Blazejowski in Ron Howard’s wonderful 1982 movie “Night Shift.”
Food for thought.