Joe Scarborough came close to calling Donald Trump a fraud when it comes to his late-in-life switch from being strongly pro-choice, including supporting partial-birth abortion, to being pro-life. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough flatly called Trump's 180-degree flip on the issue, coming when it did, "impossible."
Scarborough's comments came in the context of Trump's statement [later amended] to Chris Matthews during a town hall yesterday that he supported some form of punishment for women having abortions. Said Scarborough: "Unless you have some religious experience on the road to Damascus which I haven't seen in Donald, it's just impossible!" Here's the clip of Tim Russert's 1999 interview in which Trump [53-years old at the time] described himself as "very pro-choice" and explicitly said he would not ban partial-birth abortion.
Note: Scarborough may well be right, but if readers will permit me a personal note, I'm someone who, like Trump, grew up in NYC and had a reflexively pro-choice position for much of my life. It was not until into my 40s that I became pro-life. I give Rush Limbaugh credit for the change. At the time, the killing of baby seals was a controversial issue, and Rush postulated that most of the people opposing the killing of the seals were also pro-choice. What kind of moral compass says it's wrong to kill a baby seal but okay to kill a baby in the womb, wondered Rush? That struck a moral chord with me.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: And I will tell you, as someone who is pro-life, that believes the decision should be made by the states, I do not know how in your 50s or early 60s you believe partial-birth abortion should be legal and then ten years later are pro-life. I can tell you as someone who has been pro-life but who believes the decision shouldn't be made in Washington, should be made in the states, but just being pro-life in my gut, it's impossible to go for being for partial-birth abortion. Unless you have some religious experience on the road to Damascus which I haven't seen in Donald, it's just impossible! So how can you know what pro-life voters think?
