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      President centers ‘Bidenomics’ as 2024 re-election campaign gathers pace

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      As Joe Biden launches his 2024 re-election campaign, the White House is hoping to revamp the messaging on the president’s economic performance with a series of speeches, memos and the term “Bidenomics”.On Wednesday, Biden delivered what was billed as a major speech focused on the economy as he told an audience in Chicago that the Republican policy of “trickle-down economics” had “failed America”. In its place, Biden vowed to create policies that would prioritize growing the middle class, touted post-pandemic economic recovery and announced “Bidenomics is working” – one of 15 times he used the word over the course of his speech.Earlier in the week, a White House memo from two of Biden’s top advisers was sent to reporters and laid out a range of talking points. It touted the president’s various accomplishments on post-Covid economic recovery and job creation, while reiterating the theme that “Bidenomics is working.”“In the weeks and months ahead, the president, members of his cabinet, and senior administration officials will continue fanning out across the country to take the case for Bidenomics and the President’s Investing in America agenda directly to the American people,” the memo announced.The administration’s campaign appears to take aim at one of the president’s key vulnerabilities for the election, with polling showing voters have a dim assessment of how he has handled the economy. A Pew Research Center survey from this month found that inflation is the top concern among Republicans and Republican-leaning voters, while support for Democratic economic policies lags 12 points behind support for GOP policies. An AP/NORC poll from last month showed that only 33% of Americans supported Biden’s handling of the economy.The perceptions of Biden’s handling of the economy are at odds with a range of positive economic indicators that the White House is eager to highlight. Inflation has gone down to the lowest levels since 2021, while the administration has repeatedly touted months of consistent job growth and low unemployment. The US economy has generally outperformed economic experts’ forecasts, and for now has staved off a recession that seemed inevitable.But these gains have not appeared to resonate with voters, who have repeatedly given Biden poor marks on the economy as workers have struggled with rising prices that often outpaced growth in wages. Republicans have meanwhile been eager to capitalize on issues of inflation, labeling the spike “Bidenflation” and making it a frequent point of attack.Biden’s team attempted to defend the president’s economic achievements in the past, including dedicating a significant portion of his State of the Union address in February to highlight his record on job growth and unemployment. The White House even passed out small “palm cards” to Democratic lawmakers with a list of talking points about the economy. But as the presidential election begins to take shape it appears these efforts are intensifying, attempting to go on the offensive with a positive message about the administration’s economic agenda.Some Democratic politicians have embraced the talking points, earning them favorable positions as surrogates for the president. The California governor, Gavin Newsom, reportedly won praise from administration officials this month after an appearance on the Fox News host Sean Hannity’s show, in which Newsom forcefully challenged assertions that Biden’s economic plans were struggling and touted the president’s job creation.The “Bidenomics” memo sent to reporters earlier this week was the work of two longtime Biden advisers, Anita Dunn and Mike Donilon. Dunn is Biden’s most senior communications adviser and played a key role in turning around his 2020 presidential election bid. Donilon has worked with Biden for decades, and as his chief strategist during the 2020 election was key in shaping the campaign’s messaging.Biden initially joked about the “Bidenomics” term at a rally on 17 June hosted by union members in Philadelphia, where he said it was “time to end the trickle-down economics theory” that was commonly associated with former President Ronald Reagan’s plan of ‘Reaganomics’.“We decided to replace this theory with what the press has now called ‘Bidenomics’,” the president said. “I don’t know what the hell that is. But it’s working.” More

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      The Republican race for 2024: can anyone stop Trump? – podcast

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      When Donald Trump announced that he would be running for the presidency in 2024, millions of his devoted fans rallied to his cause. Once again, he finds himself way out in front in opinion polls of who Republican voters would choose to represent them in the 2024 presidential election. Joan E Greve tells Michael Safi that Donald Trump’s strongest opponent could be the US justice system. He’s been beset by legal strife as prosecutors hover and indictments pile up. He faces accusations that he illegally retained classified documents and obstructed justice. For a normal candidate in a normal presidential race the indictments would be enough to end a political career. But Trump has not only survived the episode, he is using it as part of his anti-establishment campaign. Meanwhile, the rest of the Republican field is faced with a dilemma: attack Trump and risk alienating his army of supporters, or try to soft-pedal the accusations and hope none of the scandal sticks to their campaigns. Whatever they appear to be trying, Trump remains hot favourite for the Republican nomination. More

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      DeSantis says as US president he would eliminate IRS and other agencies

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      Ron DeSantis pledged on Wednesday that he would eliminate four federal agencies if he were elected president: the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Department of Commerce, Department of Energy, and Department of Education.“If Congress will work with me on doing that, we’ll be able to reduce the size and scope of government,” the Florida governor said in an interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum. “If Congress won’t go that far, I’m going to use those agencies to push back against woke ideology and against the leftism that we see creeping into all institutions of American life.”Presidential candidates have long tried to eliminate federal agencies, but cannot do so unilaterally, needing Congress to go along with the plan. Rick Perry, the former Texas governor, had one of the most embarrassing moments in a presidential campaign in recent memory during a 2011 debate, when he forgot one of the agencies he wanted to eliminate. Donald Trump later tapped him to lead that agency, the Department of Energy.DeSantis offered the proposals as he continues to significantly lag behind Donald Trump in polls for the GOP presidential nomination. The Florida governor is moving to run to the right of Trump on key issues, hoping to mobilize the GOP’s conservative base.DeSantis is also facing scrutiny over his use of government resources in Texas, the Daily Beast reported. On Monday, when he visited the Texas-Mexico border, his campaign posted a photo of him standing in front of a helicopter owned by the Texas department of public safety (DPS).It’s not clear who paid for the effort, but Texas ethics rules bar the use of state resources to assist in a political campaign. As a candidate for president, DeSantis is also required to pay “fair market value” for non-commercial flights.DeSantis’s office told the New York Times his visit was both in a campaign and official capacity. The Texas Department of Public Safety told the Times that the purpose of the trip was so DeSantis could see how Florida government equipment was being used to curb migration. Texas and Florida have a joint immigration enforcement program, Operation Lone Star, which was announced in May.“The briefing included an aerial tour which was provided by DPS in order to give Governor DeSantis a clearer understanding of how Florida’s resources are being utilized along our southern border and see the challenges first hand,” Ericka Miller, a DPS spokesperson, told the Times.Earlier this year, DeSantis’s former state political committee in Florida transferred $82.5m to a federal Super Pac supporting him – a move critics said ran afoul of federal law because Super Pacs are supposed to be independent from candidates. DeSantis also signed a law in Florida making it more difficult to track his travel and see who is paying for it.DeSantis was also given a tour of the Rio Grande river on a boat owned by the Florida government, the New York Times reported. After the event, he gave a lengthy campaign speech on immigration. More

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      Ron DeSantis accused of ‘stupid’ move with timing of New Hampshire event

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      Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign is struggling in the crucial state of New Hampshire and may have made the situation worse by scheduling an event on Tuesday in competition with a speech by Donald Trump to Republican women, prompting one prominent strategist to call the move “stupid”, Politico reported.“It’s the worst strategic move he has exhibited thus far,” the New Hampshire Republican strategist, Mike Dennehy, told the website. “It’s just stupid, actually. You don’t take on the New Hampshire Federation of Republican Women.”An unnamed adviser to a rival candidate chimed in, saying: “If there’s one thing you don’t do in New Hampshire, it’s piss off the grassroots women.“Don’t mess with them, they remember everything. Rookie move.”The hard-right governor of Florida formally launched his first presidential campaign last month. He remains a clear second to Trump in polling but trails by about 30 points in most averages, Trump’s state and federal indictments having failed to significantly dent his support.Detailing DeSantis’s “stumbles” in New Hampshire – the second state to vote in the GOP primary, traditionally a bastion of libertarian-minded conservatives – Politico said: “There are signs that even inside DeSantis’s orbit, they see New Hampshire as a challenge.”Politico and other outlets noted that DeSantis’s culture war-heavy record in office, featuring use of state power to regulate private behaviour (abortion) or to punish corporations which oppose his policies on issues including LGBTQ+ rights and teaching (Disney), would probably land heavily in libertarian New Hampshire.John Kasich, the former Ohio governor who came second to Trump in New Hampshire in 2016, told NBC: “I’ve never thought that all this social issue stuff was really a winner.”A Super Pac supporting DeSantis has paused advertising in the state, Politico said, though its founder, Ken Cuccinelli, told the site New Hampshire remained “literally in the top priority tier”.DeSantis, who did not comment, is due to visit New Hampshire on Tuesday, appearing in Hollis two hours before the state women’s group stages its annual lunch in Concord, with a headline speech from Trump.Last week, Christine Peters, the group’s events director, said: “It has always been a New Hampshire hallmark to be considerate when scheduling events. To have a candidate come in and distract from the most special event [the group] holds in the year is unprecedented.”Politico said DeSantis sources rejected the criticism, as he would appear elsewhere and at a different time.Another state Republican operative, Matthew Bartlett, told NBC the competition between DeSantis and Trump was “absolutely intensifying. This is game on. This is presidential politics. This is smash-mouth. You better bring your A game. It’s not amateur hour.”But polls have shown another Trump alternative, the former New Jersey governor and experienced political brawler Chris Christie, improving his standing in New Hampshire.Another state GOP operative, Dave Carney, told Politico: “Right now, Trump’s the guy to beat in New Hampshire – that’s just a fact. It doesn’t mean he can’t be beat. But right now … no one’s beating him.”DeSantis also trails Trump in Iowa, the first state to vote, and South Carolina and Nevada, other key targets among early primary contests.Dennehy said DeSantis had to “turn it around” – or face a political “death by a thousand cuts”. More

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      Republicans’ enduring fealty to Trump on display at conference after his indictment

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      Republicans’ enduring loyalty to Donald Trump was on vivid display at a conservative conference this weekend, convened just two weeks after the former president was indicted on 37 federal charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents.Addressing this year’s Road to Majority conference Saturday, Trump lashed out against federal prosecutors, who have accused the former president of intentionally withholding classified documents from authorities and obstructing justice in his efforts to keep those materials concealed. Trump, who could soon face additional charges in Washington and Georgia, told the friendly crowd that he considered each of his two indictments so far to be “a great badge of courage” as he ran to unseat Democratic incumbent Joe Biden.“Joe Biden has weaponized law enforcement to interfere in our elections,” Trump told the conservative audience. “I’m being indicted for you.”Trump was among several Republican presidential candidates to speak at the conference, held in Washington and hosted by the rightwing evangelical group Faith and Freedom Coalition.His message was echoed by some of his presidential primary opponents, several of whom used their conference speeches to attack the allegedly politicized department of justice.Florida governor Ron DeSantis promised to replace the FBI’s director – Christopher Wray, appointed during Trump’s presidency – while South Carolina US senator Tim Scott pledged to fire attorney general Merrick Garland and “change the trajectory of this nation by focusing on restoring confidence and integrity” in the US justice department.But one of Trump’s primary opponents, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, did not shy away from directly confronting the former president, accusing him of “letting us down”.“He’s unwilling to take responsibility for any of the mistakes that were made, any of the faults that he has, and any of the things that he’s done,” Christie told the conference on Friday. “And that is not leadership, everybody. That is a failure of leadership.”The remarks were met with some scattered applause and loud booing as one conference attendee shouted at Christie, “We love Trump!”Amid the jeers, Christie added: “You can boo all you want, but here’s the thing: Our faith teaches us that people have to take responsibility for what they do, that people have to stand up and take accountability for what they do, and I cannot stand by.”Speaking a day later, Trump mocked Christie for getting “booed off the stage”, even though he was in fact allowed to finish his remarks. The insult was greeted with loud applause from the crowd, who repeatedly broke out into chants of “USA!” and “We love Trump!”Timothy Head, executive director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, commended Christie for his willingness to “walk into the lion’s den,” adding: “It’s overwhelmingly a pro-Trump room at this conference and a pro-Trump movement broadly speaking, and so I guess from that standpoint, it certainly took some courage to do that knowingly.”Amy Leahy, a 69-year-old conference attendee from Maryland, said she strongly disagreed with Christie’s attacks on Trump. “I’m not happy to hear him say those things,” Leahy said. She added: “It’s not going to get him elected president.”The conference’s negative response to Christie and the effusive praise of Trump underscored the former president’s resilient popularity among the Republican voters who will determine the party’s nominee next year. Trump continues to dominate in polls of likely Republican primary voters, even after his two arrests in New York and Florida.If anything, Trump’s most recent indictment appears to have inspired more sympathy among the party loyalists at the Road to Majority.“They’re going after him just because he is Donald Trump, and I don’t think the charges are valid,” Leahy said. “I think a lot of people are supporting him in the knowledge that, or the assumption that, he is being railroaded.”Albert Tumminello, an 86-year-old conference attendee from Virginia who said he was leaning toward supporting Trump in the primary, echoed that belief, arguing the federal charges against the former president should not at all disqualify him from seeking office.“He’s been under much more duress than we can ever imagine,” Tumminello added.Polling taken since Trump’s second indictment indicates that sentiment is shared by a wide swath of the Republican primary electorate. According to an NBC News survey released Sunday, 51% of Republican voters name Trump as their top choice to be the party’s nominee, marking a six-point increase since April. Trump’s next closest competitor, DeSantis, trails the former president by 29 points.Trump joked on Saturday: “I’m probably the only person in history in this country who’s been indicted, and my numbers went up.”Those data points have only intensified skepticism over whether any other Republican candidate can win a substantial amount of support from evangelical voters, who will play an outsized role in early voting states like Iowa. Head acknowledged that Trump enjoys the advantage of good will with evangelical voters because of his White House accomplishments, particularly on the issue of abortion.As he spoke Saturday, which marked one year since the end of Roe v Wade, Trump bragged about nominating three of the supreme court justices who supported overturning that landmark case, which established federal abortion rights. Although he remained vague on his preferred timeline for a nationwide abortion ban, Trump said: “There of course remains a vital role for the federal government in protecting unborn life.”“I’m proud to be the most pro-life president in American history,” Trump said, prompting more loud cheers.Despite Trump’s significant advantage, Head emphasized that other primary candidates still have the time and the opportunity to make their mark with evangelical voters.“They feel like they know what they get with [Trump], and they very much like what they get with him,” Head said. “But I think a lot of people are interested in maybe going back into the market, so to speak, to see if there is anything else, either on policy or on style, that they like better.“I think this is a race. It’s far from over.” More

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      Trump rails against federal charges and accuses Biden of ‘weaponizing’ justice department

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      Donald Trump has derided the substantial federal charges against him, downplaying the numerous legal threats he faces while attacking Joe Biden for allegedly having “weaponized” the department of justice for political gain.Speaking on Saturday at the Road to Majority conference in Washington, hosted by the right-wing evangelical Faith and Freedom Coalition, Trump said he considered each of the two indictments he has received so far to be a “great badge of courage”.“Joe Biden has weaponized law enforcement to interfere in our elections,” Trump told the conservative audience. “I’m being indicted for you.”The speech came less than two weeks after Trump, currently the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, pleaded not guilty to 37 federal charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents.According to prosecutors, Trump intentionally withheld highly sensitive government documents from federal officials and obstructed justice in his efforts to keep those materials concealed. Trump also faces charges in New York related to his alleged involvement in a hush-money scheme during the 2016 presidential election, and he could potentially be indicted in Georgia and Washington over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.In his Saturday speech, Trump attempted to argue that the Presidential Records Act of 1978 made his retention of classified documents legal, even though he has actually been charged under the Espionage Act.“Whatever documents a president decides to take with him, he has the absolute right to take them,” Trump falsely claimed.Trump also tried to redirect attention away from the charges by noting that Biden was found to have kept classified documents in his private residence, which is now the subject of a special counsel investigation. However, unlike Trump, Biden never received a subpoena for the classified materials in his possession because his team voluntarily gave them to federal officials.Trump simultaneously accused Hunter Biden, the president’s son, of corruption, parroting claims from leading House Republicans. News broke Tuesday that Hunter Biden would plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses, and he struck a deal with prosecutors to avoid a conviction on a separate felony gun charge. Hunter Biden was not charged in connection to his overseas business dealings, which have become a source of great outrage among Trump and his allies, but House Republicans have nevertheless pledged to continue investigating the president’s son.“They lie, they cheat and they steal,” Trump said of Democrats. “This is how low they’ve fallen in an attempt to win the 2024 election, and we’re not going to let that happen.” He then repeated his false claim that the 2020 presidential election had been rigged against him.In his speech, Trump also touched on some of the policy priorities for the evangelical voters who will play a crucial role in determining the Republican presidential nominee. Trump spoke on the same day that the US marked one year since Roe v Wade was overturned, and the former president took the opportunity to congratulate himself for nominating three of the supreme court justices who supported reversing that landmark decision.“I got it done, and nobody thought it was even a possibility,” Trump said. “I’m proud to be the most pro-life president in American history.”Trump received a warm reception from the conservative audience, who greeted him with a standing ovation as he took the stage. The crowd repeatedly broke out into chants of “USA!” and “We vote Trump!”Despite the serious legal threats he faces, Trump continues to dominate in polls of likely Republican primary voters. A CNN survey taken last week, after the indictment in the classified documents case was unsealed, found that 47% of Republican voters name Trump as their top choice to be the party’s 2024 nominee. Trump’s closest competitor, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, trailed him by 21 points.In his own speech at the Road to Majority conference on Friday, DeSantis declined to directly mention the indictment, but he similarly lamented that the federal government had become “weaponized” and promised to replace FBI director Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee.But that sentiment was not shared by fellow presidential candidate Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who was once a Trump ally and has now become one of the former president’s most vocal critics within the Republican party. Speaking at the conference Friday, Christie attacked Trump’s character and accused him of having “let us down”.“He’s unwilling to take responsibility for any of the mistakes that were made, any of the faults that he has, and any of the things that he’s done,” Christie said, prompting some boos from the conference crowd.Trump mocked Christie on Saturday, falsely saying he was “booed off the stage”, even though he was in fact allowed to finish his remarks despite the harsh reception. Trump’s insult was met with loud applause.At one point, Trump quipped: “I’m probably the only person in history in this country who’s been indicted, and my numbers went up.” More

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      Republicans scramble to limit electoral backlash against abortion bans

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      In the months since the supreme court voted to overturn Roe v Wade last year, the effects of the court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization have become clear. Over a dozen states across the country have passed legislation limiting or outright banning access to abortions, severely restricting reproductive rights for millions of people and threatening to imprison abortion providers.But as Republicans have pushed through these bills, voters have also taken every opportunity to rebuke them in elections – leading to defeats in midterms and emerging as one of the GOP’s largest vulnerabilities.After initially celebrating victory in their nearly five-decade campaign to end the constitutional right to abortion, Republicans now find themselves scrambling to simultaneously lessen their electoral losses and defend unpopular anti-abortion policies. Reproductive rights are set to be a key issue in the general election next year, with implications from the presidential campaign all the way down the ballot. While the GOP has not stopped passing anti-abortion bills, including in South Carolina and North Carolina last month, it has begun to worry about the price that it is paying for them.“As Republicans we need to read the room on this issue,” the South Carolina Republican representative Nancy Mace, who supports anti-abortion policies, said on ABC News in April. “We’re going to lose huge if we continue down this path of extremities.”Polling after the Dobbs decision showed that a majority of Americans disapproved of the court overturning Roe, with a Pew Research Center survey from last July showing that nearly six in 10 adults opposed the ruling. Pew’s survey also showed a majority of Americans in the largely conservative states where abortion bans were set to take place also disapproved of the decision. A separate NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll from April this year found support for abortion access around an all-time high, and notably showed that about one-third of Republicans mostly supported abortion rights.The electoral implications of Republicans’ post-Dobbs anti-abortion push began to reveal themselves early on, when heavily conservative Kansas voted no in a referendum last August on whether the state should remove abortion rights from its constitution.“The vote in Kansas sends a decisive message that Americans are angry about the efforts to roll back their rights and won’t stand for it,” Sarah Stoesz, then the president of Planned Parenthood for the region, said after the vote.Despite the warning from the Kansas contest, Republican leaders still believed they would capitalize on President Joe Biden’s low approval ratings and concern over inflation to sweep back into power in a “red wave” during midterm elections. That never materialized, and instead Republicans underperformed as an energized Democratic base came out to vote. Michigan Democrats flipped the state legislature for the first time in nearly 40 years, Pennsylvania Democrats secured victories against anti-abortion candidates and, ballot measures in five states, including Kentucky and Montana, all resulted in voters choosing to support abortion rights.Following the midterms, Republican leaders realize that they have a problem. The Republican National Committee chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, appeared on Fox News Sunday in April to discuss the issue, saying that abortion had played a major role in key swing states and that party candidates needed to face the issue “head on”.“Many of our candidates across the board refused to talk about it, thinking, ‘Oh we can just talk about the economy and ignore this big issue,’ and they can’t,” McDaniel said.But Republicans have struggled to find a consistent line on abortion, with lawmakers divided over what level of restrictions they would put on reproductive rights. Republican leaders’ opinions range from insisting on total abortion bans to cutting access off at 15 weeks of pregnancy to washing their hands of the issue and saying it is up to states to decide.Presidential candidates have similarly found themselves caught between different factions of the party and voter interests. Donald Trump reportedly told allies that he views a federal abortion ban as a losing proposition for the election and his campaign spokesperson has said Trump believes bans should be left up to states, threatening a rift with evangelical voters that have been a large part of his base.Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is currently Trump’s most prominent challenger, has taken a harder line and signed a six-week abortion ban in April – causing one major Republican donor to halt his funding to DeSantis. Other candidates have vacillated over taking a specific stance, including Nikki Haley who last month refused to name the specific number of weeks into pregnancy she would limit abortion.Influential and deep-pocketed Christian conservative groups have further complicated the dynamic, insisting that without Roe to stop them Republican politicians should pass strict abortion bans. Susan B Anthony Pro-Life America, a major anti-abortion non-profit and political organization, vowed to campaign against Trump if he would not support a 15-week abortion ban.Meanwhile, Democrats have been centering abortion access in speeches and campaigns. Vice-President Kamala Harris told a crowd at Howard University that “this is a moment for us to stand and fight” in an April speech, while the Democratic senator Dick Durbin chaired a Senate judiciary committee hearing that same month titled “The Assault on Reproductive Rights in a Post-Dobbs America”.Democrats also secured a huge victory in Wisconsin earlier this year when the liberal judge Janet Protasiewicz won a seat on the state supreme court. Protasiewicz, who openly discussed her personal support for abortion during the campaign, defeated a conservative opponent who had accepted $1m in campaign donations from an anti-abortion political action committee.Protasiewicz’s win ended a 15-year conservative majority on the court, and could mean that liberal justices overrule an 1849 law banning abortion which went into effect in the state when Roe was overturned. More

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      Pence tells Republicans to take hard line on abortion despite electoral liability

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      Speaking one year since the US supreme court removed the federal right to abortion, Mike Pence said candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination should stand firm on the electorally unpopular issue and take a hard line on bringing in national limits.“For me, for our campaign, we’re going to stand where we’ve always stood, and that is without apology for the right to life,” the former congressman, Indiana governor and vice-president to Donald Trump told Politico.Later, addressing the Faith & Freedom conference in Washington, Pence said every Republican candidate “should support a ban on abortions before 15 weeks, as a minimum nationwide standard”.Claiming this was a “reasonable and mainstream standard”, Pence said: “American abortion policy has more in common with China and North Korea than it does with the nations of Europe – and it is time for that to change.”In response, Shwetika Baijal, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Votes, a political group associated with the women’s health provider, accused the former vice-president of “spew[ing] harmful anti-abortion rights rhetoric”.The ruling which removed the right to abortion, Dobbs v Jackson, was released on 24 June 2022.Since then, Democrats have enjoyed electoral success through painting Republicans as threats to women’s right to control their own bodies. Polling consistently returns majorities in favour of abortion rights. On Friday, Navigator, a progressive firm, said 60% of voters now identify as pro-choice.Other candidates for the Republican nomination have struggled to define their stances on the issue. Many observers suggest the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, the closest challenger to the frontrunner, Trump, would face problems in a general election given his signing of a six-week ban.DeSantis has avoided the subject, but, speaking to Politico, Pence was far from coy. Abortion, he said, would help decide “whether or not we’re going to continue to be a party grounded in conservative principles … or whether our party is going to shy away from those core traditional principles”.Pence also claimed recent Republican reverses had a “common denominator [that] has not to do with the issue of abortion. Rather, where candidates were focused on … re-litigating the past[,] we did not fare well.”Politico called that a “veiled reference” to Trump’s lies about electoral fraud in his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden, culminating in the January 6 attack.“Pence brought up Trump several times unprompted,” the site said, “though never by name – arguing that Trump’s suggestion that the Dobbs ruling undercut the GOP in 2022 was ‘wrong’ and hitting back at Trump for criticizing DeSantis’s six-week ban as ‘too harsh’.”In contrast to the evangelical Pence, Trump is a known womaniser who in 2016 dodged a question about whether he had ever been “involved with anyone who had an abortion”.“Such an interesting question,’” Trump told the New York Times. “So what’s your next question?’Trump still dominates the 2024 race, even while under state and federal indictments, the former over a payoff to a porn star, the latter over his retention of classified records. He was also found liable for sexual assault, against the writer E Jean Carroll.“In my announcement speech,” Pence told Politico, “I articulated my concern that my former running mate and other candidates … are backing away from an unwavering commitment to the right to life.“It’s not consistent with the kind of principled leadership I believe Republicans are looking for in the cause of life.”Politico said Pence dodged questions on whether DeSantis’s ban was too harsh and whether House Republicans should pass a nationwide ban of the sort he called for on Friday.Claiming he stood for “compassion”, Pence told the site he would fund “crisis pregnancy centres” and make adoption more affordable.Asked what he would say to women who believe conservatives want to control their bodies, Pence said he hoped they “hear my heart”.In her statement, Baijal of Planned Parenthood Votes said: “Public opinion will not change. The overwhelming majority of Americans support abortion rights and do not want politicians in their doctor’s office.“[Pence’s] GOP primary rivals seem to understand this and are desperately trying to avoid talking or answering questions about abortion. But Pence keeps boastfully sharing his extreme anti-abortion agenda out loud.” More