Donald Trump’s new media strategy is straight-up gaslighting the American people on his abortion record – and to no one’s surprise, the mainstream press is happily playing along. What yesterday’s coverage missed was that it was Trump who pushed for an extreme national abortion ban while he was in office, he was the one who called for women who have abortions to be punished, he constantly brags about his role in overturning Roe v. Wade, and he opened the door for extreme abortion bans across the country. There isn’t any doubt, if Trump is reelected, we know he’d only build on his opportunities to rip away women’s reproductive freedom.

But since you won’t hear about Trump’s long, consistent record of being an abortion extremist in the media, here’s what people are saying … 

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi: “Make no mistake: the former occupant of the White House and his extreme Supreme Court majority overturned Roe — now women have fewer rights than their mothers did. Re-electing Biden-Harris is the ONLY way we can reclaim Roe and secure our fundamental freedoms. #MondayMotivation”

Rep. Sara Jacobs: “Says the man who is the reason the right to an abortion is no longer the law of the land. Give me a break 🙄”

Mayor Karen Bass: “Just to be crystal clear, Donald Trump is the reason we have a Supreme Court that overturned Roe and set in motion a cycle to put the lives of women all across the country at risk. There is no lie he can tell to erase that fact.”

Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway: “Let’s be clear: Donald Trump has repeatedly bragged about appointing the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and women across Wisconsin lost the right to make their own health care decisions because of him. In 2020, WI sent Trump packing and we’ll do it again in 2024.”

Mini Timmaraju: “This is dangerous—we can’t let Trump off the hook for his record. If he becomes president again, he will sign any federal abortion ban that hits his desk into law, full stop.”

Maria Cardona: “He’s not “hedging” he’s lying & hoping media won’t notice! He appointed justices that overturned Roe & he BRAGS about it all the time, says he was “honored” to have helped overturn it, says “No one has done more” to help ban abortion than him!! It’s his appeal to Evangelicals!”

Jim Messina: “Trump is the guy who brags “no one has done more” to overturn Roe. Horror stories like these couldn’t happen without him. There’s no such thing as “compromise” on Roe while girls are raped & forced to give birth and women almost die bc their civil rights have been taken away.”

Jim Messina: “What the f–k is this??? Trump has said there should be punishment for women who get abortions, nominated three justices who were decisive in overturning Roe v. Wade, and publicly celebrated when those judges ended a woman’s right to choose. Garbage.”

Christina Reynolds: “In today’s Meet the Press interview, Trump took credit for overturning Roeand acknowledged he would sign a federal ban. And he told a bunch of lies. After a history in politics of telling lies. And yet, he’s getting coverage like he’s suddenly good with abortion rights.”

Christina Reynolds: “In this interview, Trump takes credit for overturning Roe and then lies his way out of giving an actual answer. Anyone giving this attempt to lie about his record any credibility must have believed ‘COVID will end by Easter’ and ‘I will have a tremendous health care plan soon.’”

Kate Bedingfield: “Headlining this piece “Trump calls six-week abortion bans ‘terrible’” with no other context is a prime example of how traditional coverage of Trump fails. Did he say those words? Yes. Has he also 1) taken credit for endingRoe 2) specifically taken credit for creating an environment where 6 week bans can happen and 3) shown repeatedly time and again nonstop for years that he will lie and lie and lie about everything with no compunction? Yes. Yes. And yes. So, to write up this exchange as you might write up something Romney or W or Obama said on the campaign trail 10, 15 or 20 years ago is a total failure to reckon with and accurately portray Trump. It’s not just the Post – a lot of the coverage of this exchange today is framed like this, which is exactly the way Trump wants it, but not a reflection of his anti-choice record or his casual relationship with the truth.”

Ron Klain: “So true, @kbeds.  Abortion bans exist in America due to Trump’s avowed effort to get Ros reversed. It was the only historic achievement of his Presidency.”

Victor Shi: “WTF? NBC just ran a headline that reads, ‘Trump wants to bring the country together on abortion: ‘Both sides are going to like me.’ Not only is NBC legitimizing Trump by giving him a national platform tomorrow, but they’re lying about his dangerous abortion ban. Shame on NBC.”  

Molly Jong-Fast: “And yet he would totally sign it https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/17/trump-abortion/”

Matthew Iglesias: “I think a relevant lens for understanding coverage choices is that it’s better for clicks, subscriptions, ratings, etc if Trump wins again and it’s more fun to cover him if you pretend not to know how he’s governed and will govern.”

Karen Finney: “Media manipulated by Trump again as reckless coverage of @nbc lets Trump lie about his actual record on abortion: Trump gleefully appointed judges that overturned Roe, even saying “no one has done more”,  that he was able to kill Roe v. Wade, flashback: https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4008311-trump-boasts-he-was-able-to-kill-roe-v-wade-takes-credit-for-state-abortion-bans/”