Republicans Voters Against Trump director Sarah Longwell said that she did a focus group with GOP women who voted for Donald Trump previously but who are now very afraid.
"I was recently in Arizona; this is the state where they recently repealed their abortion law which put into place an 1870 law that restricted abortion, even in the cases of rape, incest, and life of the mother," she explained. "These women were totally freaked out by what was happening when you talk about abortion."
She explained that these voters understand the stakes at a very personal level. Three had abortions themselves, and a fourth had a "catastrophic health situation" in which "she was desperately afraid for her life."
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Earlier this week, Trump made a comment to a local reporter saying that he was "looking at" a ban on contraception and said he would be announcing the specifics of his policy shortly. His campaign was quick to put out a statement saying that he "misspoke" and that he is not looking to ban birth control.
"So, that right now is the reason that Donald Trump and Republicans are struggling so much on this issue because they feel good when they get to sort of, you know, talk about the economy or immigration," Longwell explained. "They feel like they're on offense. But the second this issue comes up, it becomes a catastrophe with Republicans, especially with the group they are most vulnerable with, a lot of the college-educated, suburban women."
She said that Republicans stand a chance at success if they can change their message and make the election about something else entirely.
"One of [Trump's] nefarious superpowers is he reads as a cultural moderate or social moderate," Longwell said. "They don't think he's a Mike Pence Bible-believing Christian. In fact, if you ask about Donald Trump and abortion at the focus group, lot of voters are, like, 'maybe he paid for an abortion' or certainly 'not opposed to it.' That tends to work in his favor a bit here, which is why you just cannot count on abortion hurting Donald Trump."
She explained that the best plan is to "attach it to him" by making it clear "he repealed Roe. You cannot trust him going forward. He will never put women's needs above his own."
Luckily for Democrats, Trump has spent the past year bragging that he was the one who overturned Roe.
“We don’t need it any longer because we broke Roe v. Wade,” Trump said in April about abortion bans.
Biden has already incorporated it into his campaign messaging.
See the MSNBC discussion below or at the link here.
Republican reveals what caused ex-Trump voters to be 'totally freaked out' in focus group www.youtube.com