After Thursday’s presidential debate, left-leaning media outlets issued a flurry of editorials lamenting President Joe Biden’s incoherent responses on the issue of abortion, the biggest Democratic election issue going into November.
“The debate was so awful that it’s hard to pinpoint the worst moment, but Biden’s response on abortion rights, one of the issues where Democrats have a big advantage, in what should have been an easy win for him, may have been the most egregious,” Jill Filipovic said. I have written For Slate.
WATCH: Biden falters on abortion issue during historic debate with Trump
CNN host Dana Bash asked Trump if he would ban the abortion pill, to which he replied that he wouldn’t. She also asked Biden if there were any abortion restrictions he would support. Biden repeatedly said, Roe v. Wade And he refused to discuss the abortion restrictions he strongly supports.
Filipovic continued.
Americans are very sympathetic to the arguments that abortion rights are about personal freedom and that banning abortion would have dire consequences, but Biden failed to articulate either of those arguments. He gave incoherent answers about his support. Roe v. WadeThe president was unable to really articulate the three-term framework. His long-standing allergy to saying the word abortion made him confused. The president, who has a penchant for going off on tangents, tried to avoid the word abortion, but ended up saying very little.
Filipovic also criticized Biden for “bizarrely” bringing up the issue of illegal immigrants killing young American women. “Trump used this issue repeatedly on the campaign trail to portray the Biden administration as dangerously soft on the border, turning what should have been an easy win into an outlet for his opponent to vent his frustrations,” he said. his My favorite pet issue.”
She writes:
Biden’s difficulty answering questions about abortion was in many ways part of the struggle he had answering questions about throughout the evening — a result of illness, fatigue, or even slurred speech caused by age-related physical and even cognitive decline. But his difficulties answering questions about abortion also seemed to reflect a general apathy and genuine lack of knowledge about the issue.
Tessa Stewart I have written for Rolling Stone Biden’s handling of abortion was a “huge failure.”
“But Biden couldn’t have botched this exchange more spectacularly by starting a fight over whether constitutional scholars agree. egg “The ruling was wrong (and honestly, who cares at this point?),” Stewart wrote, “then referenced Georgia’s six-week abortion ban and inexplicably pivoted to a story about Laken Riley, a nursing student who was allegedly murdered by an illegal immigrant.”
Stewart added that the debate was an opportunity for Biden to “clearly contrast his record on reproductive rights as president with the potential disaster that looms if Trump is re-elected.”
“Instead, this critical moment has devolved into a largely incoherent debate about what constitutional scholars think. Roe v. Wade “Among the extensive communications filled with missed opportunities, distortions and outright lies,” she continued.
Sarah Pequeño I have written Biden “struggled to offer a coherent answer” on the issue of abortion, USA Today reported.
“Biden, at least, eggBut it took a long time to get there. I was hoping he’d say something inspiring. Democrats are big on abortion, a major concern especially for Gen Z,” she wrote. “I’d rather he [sic] Have a clear plan Roe v. Wade “It’s the law of the country.”
“The Biden campaign has made abortion a central part of its policy, even sending Vice President Kamala Harris to visit an abortion provider in Minnesota in March. Given how much they’ve campaigned on the issue, I expected to see more than a mild rebuke from Biden during the debate,” she added.
Even before the debate began, left-wing media outlets had blasted Biden, a self-described Catholic, for not being pro-abortion enough and not using the word “abortion” enough.
Still, the Biden administration is arguably the most pro-abortion administration in U.S. history. Through Executive orders, rulemaking and guidance by unelected government officials, and a variety of legal challenges to advance abortion-on-demand policies across the country and around the world.
