For the record, article dated:
August 12, 2015Beyond that, this has been widely discussed at the time. It was one of the first clues that I saw that Trump has been running a General Election campaign from Day 1.
“There's two Planned Parenthoods, in a way. You have it as an abortion clinic. Now that's actually a fairly small part of what they do, but it’s a brutal part and I'm totally against it,” Trump said.
I will acknowledge that Mr. Trump (less than a month in campaign mode) was
incorrect about the percentage of abortions performed as a total of PP activity. (An example of some of the early ham-handedness that he has been leaving behind.)
“They also, however, service women,” Trump said, adding later, “We have to help women. A lot of women are helped. So we have to look at the positives for Planned Parenthood.”
Here is the General Election part of it. It certainly doesn't come close to satisfying social conservatives, not in the least. But... it provides him insulation in a GE campaign from the typical War on Women barbs that knock so many GOP candidates for a loop.
What the article doesn't include, is that during those few days, he also (in GE mode) talked about how much his wife and daughter tell him all of the time about how wonderful he will be for women.
Cutting to the chase:
- Trump will likely lose some primary support in certain segments that remain "unpleased" with his comments on this topic.
- Trump retains a bit of a firewall against the typical War on Women attacks that will come in the GE.
Interestingly, I hear some of the pundits started to talk about Trump being in an early GE mode over the past week, I've been observing it and posting about it for months.
