Columnist Charles Krauthammer argued that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s abortion statement during an interview with NBC’s “Today” show isn’t “unreasonable,” but it does have a slight “moral contradiction” and “doesn’t square with what he said originally about punishing the woman. So he’s a little bit confused on this” and that there isn’t “an epidemic of transgenders being evil in bathrooms across the country” on Thursday’s “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel.
Krauthammer said [relevant remarks begin around 4:00] that Trump’s statement that the GOP platform should have exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother for abortion, seems to be something he truly believes, and “[T]here is a split even among conservatives, surely in the country as a whole, on this issue. On the one hand, there’s sort of a moral contradiction. If you believe that the life of the unborn is inviolable, then why would it make any difference how that life came into existence? On the other hand, you have people like Kasich, and others, who represent a large number of conservatives, who deeply believe in the pro-life side, who think that you can’t — you have to make exceptions, almost as a kind of human mercy for the parent, the prospective mother. So I understand it’s a split. I understand that he, being somebody, Trump, who came out of an extremely high — extreme pro-choice part of the spectrum, would end up here. Although, it doesn’t square with what he said originally about punishing the woman. So he’s a little bit confused on this. But I would give credit for honesty on this, and for taking a position that is not unreasonable, in a terribly difficult moral choice.”
After the discussion turned to Trump’s comments on which bathroom transgendered people ought to be allowed to use, Krauthammer stated that legislation like the “bathroom law” passed in North Carolina is “a solution in search of an issue. I mean, do we really have an epidemic of transgenders being evil in bathrooms across the country? I haven’t heard of a single case. I mean, obviously, if there’s going to be this dilemma, I think people ought to work it out on their own. If you have to have legislation, then you need to have a lot of deliberation about this. But this is — we are talking about, as if transgenders are like a fifth of the population. This is a very small problem at the edges of other problems having to do with gender identity, that’s become national, precisely because Republicans in North Carolina decided it was a problem. It is not a major national problem, and it should have been left that way.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.