by Kate Anderson
Former President Donald Trump is still weighing his pick for vice president and is looking to avoid a candidate who is too strict about limiting abortion, according to NBC News.
During a dinner at Mar-a-Lago in February, Trump reportedly polled his guests to see where they thought his vice president should fall on the pro-life spectrum, according to individuals close to Trump who spoke to NBC News, one of whom was at the dinner. The former president allegedly asked the diners about the electability of Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.
“The president understands it as a treacherous issue — one that you can actually trip up and fall on your face with,” one source told NBC, further noting that Trump was unlikely to go for “someone with a six-week ban in their discussions or someone without any commitment on the exceptions.”
Trump has been criticized by pro-life advocates for not being strong enough on the issue since he left office in 2021, despite having been largely credited with helping overturn Roe v. Wade through his appointment of Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The former president has reportedly considered the idea of a 16-week federal ban with exceptions, but has called heartbeat laws that ban abortion around six weeks “too harsh.”
Trump has reportedly been talking to donors about the issue as well, with several expressing concerns about Scott’s support of stricter bans affecting Trump’s ability to sway middle-of-the-road voters, according to NBC. One Democratic strategist told NBC that they hoped Trump would pick someone like Scott or Republican Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, saying it would make “our job easier.”
“When you have the second-highest candidate for office on their ticket supporting these types of policies … that is going to bleed into races all the way down ballot. You would see that in television ads in every state in every race,” the strategist said.
Americans have traditionally been supportive of abortion access in some cases, with 34% saying they would support abortion for any reason and 51% saying they support the practice in some circumstances as of May 2023, according to Gallop.
Republicans have struggled to gain momentum on the issue since the landmark overturning of Roe, losing seven straight ballot initiatives to enshrine abortion rights into state law.
Trump’s campaign and Scott did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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Kate Anderson is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Vice President Emblem” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
