We have breaking news. Former President Donald Trump says
Arizona's Supreme Court went too far in its decision upholding
a
160 year old near total ban on abortions,
but says that will soon be straightened out.
Take a listen.
Yeah, they did. And that'll be straightened out.
And as you know, it's all about states rights.
That'll be straightened out. And I'm sure that the governor
and everybody else are going to bring it back into
reason and that'll be taking care of,
I think, very quickly. So for 52 years,
people have wanted to end Roe V Wade to get
it back to the states.
We did that. It was an incredible thing,
an incredible achievement. We did that.
And now the states have it and the states are
putting out what they wanted to will of the people
Trump on the tarmac there.
And his comments come just days after declaring that abortion
should be on the states.
ABC News political director Rick Klein joining me now for
more.
OK, So Rick, walk me through this.
How significant is what he just said?
Well, he is now saying that he believes that the,
the, the near total abortion ban in Arizona goes too
far.
And what he's talking about is a law that's been
on the books since the Civil War era,
predating Arizona's even existence as a state.
That's the ban that the Arizona Supreme Court put into
effect yesterday.
And he mentioned the overturning of Roe versus Wade.
Not I think he misconstrued the unanimity
or the consensus that across the country that doesn't exist,
that Roe V Wade should have been
set aside. But you can also draw a Direct Line
from the overturning of Roe versus Wade to this decision.
In fact, the court, the judges,
cited the the overturning of Roe versus Wade numerous times.
And as Trump does claim credit for,
it's because of those three additional justices that he named
to the court that that majority existed.
Well, let's stay there. Because Trump said abortion access should
be left up to the states.
Right? But he also took credit today,
as we've heard before, for the Supreme Court overturning Roe
V Wade since he appointed those 3 conservative justices.
You know, are we talking about a fine line here?
I mean what's the deal?
It's so fine a line that it may not exist.
You can't even find it anywhere because he,
he has talked, first of all,
he's been had many positions on abortion.
He's called himself so so-called pro-life as well as pro-choice
and he is trying to take credit for this and
I think deserves a good degree of credit for this,
while at the same time saying he doesn't want a
nationwide ban on abortion.
So he tried to quell this a bit this week
with a with a statement back on Monday.
Feels like a long time ago because after he said
that it should be left to states,
you had a state court decide that they would leave
it up to a state law.
And that's the consequence that we now see in Arizona
and the reality of your total ban that's about to
go into effect.
So letting states decide has consequences and that's something that
I think that the former president would have to acknowledge
today.
Yeah, consequences and also fallout.
So let's go there. So we've already heard big name
Republicans say that they were disappointed by Trump saying that
abort abortion access is a states right issue.
What could this mean to his supporters ahead of this
highly consequential election.
Yeah it's striking to me there are people that are
on the in the again the people that consider themselves
pro-life who who say that they want to see this
nationwide ban. But most Republicans in fact are coming out
today essentially on the Trump positions.
Notably Carrie Lake one of the most vocal Trump supporters
there is now running for Senate in Arizona previously loved
this law thought it should be a model for other
states. Now she says it should be repealed
and is calling on the the Democratic governor there to
to champion such an effort.
So look, he is, he is,
this is unwinnable issue for any one.
And I think particularly a Republican,
he is on defense on this.
And he is trying to explain how the consequences of
the actions that he promised may not be quite what
they seem.
And so far, at least,
we've seen voters react pretty strongly to any such argument.
Absolutely. ABC News political director Rick Klein,
thank you so much.