Donald Trump may strike general election voters as "moderate" and hence be "electable," more so than anyone else remaining in the GOP primary field, because of his stand in favor of taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood.
That's the take of MSNBC's Steve Kornacki, at least.
"You know, we focus so much on immigration with Donald Trump, but when you look at health care, Planned Parenthood, he could be more moderate, maybe more electable, than any Republican I’ve seen," Kornacki offered.
"I talked to his son Eric, and he was saying, look at the broad appeal that this is going to have," agreed NBC's Chris Jansing, who joined network colleague Kate Snow and veteran Nevada political journalist Jon Ralston in a segment entitled "Trump & Clinton On Collision Course."
Watch video and read the transcript below:
MSNBC
MTP Daily
February 22, 2016; 5:39 p.m. Eastern
onscreen graphic: Trump & Clinton On Collision CourseSTEVE KORNACKI, substitute host: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are in firm control of their nomination fights, which raises the question, “What kind of a slugfest could we be in store for if these two frontrunners collide in the general election?”
Well, one thing is for sure, it could very well be one of the ugliest and nastiest, and most interesting contests ever in American politics.
[…]
KORNACKI: And the other wild card in this Chris is, Trump's ideology, is not, there's still a lot we don't know, and it's very flexible, you know.
CHRIS JANSING, NBC News: We’re trying to get up, we can’t quite grasp it yet.
KORNACKI: Here's an example. This was Meet the Press just yesterday talking about Planned Parenthood.
And this is an issue that got Republicans in the general election into a lot of trouble four years ago. But listen to Trump talk about Planned Parenthood.
CHUCK TODD on Feb. 21 edition of Meet the Press: Do you think that it should be a law that anybody who can afford health insurance has to have it?
DONALD TRUMP, on Meet the Press, first clip: We're not going to let people die in some. in squalor, because we are Republicans, okay? That's part of the problem with the Republicans, where somehow they got fed into this horrible position. We're going to take care of people.
TRUMP, second clip: I have many, many friends who are women, who understand Planned Parenthood better than you or I will ever understood it. And they do some very good work. Cervical cancer, lots of women's issue [sic], women's health issues are taken care of.
TRUMP, third clip: Planned Parenthood does a lot of good jobs, a really good job in a lot of different areas.
KORNACKI: You know, we focus so much on immigration with Donald Trump, but when you look at health care, Planned Parenthood, he could be more moderate, maybe more electable, than any Republican I’ve seen.
JANSING: I talked to his son Eric, and he was saying, look at the broad appeal that this is going to have.
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