Sen. JD Vance, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, on Sunday backed away from comments he made in August saying that Trump would veto a federal abortion ban if it came to his desk.
“I’ve learned my lesson on speaking for the president before he and I have actually talked about an issue,” Vance told NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” just days after Trump publicly said he hadn’t ever discussed with Vance what he’d do if an abortion ban crossed his desk as president.
“I didn’t discuss it with JD, in all fairness,” Trump said during Tuesday’s debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. “And I don’t mind if he has a certain view, but I don’t think he was speaking for me.”
At the debate, the former president went on to say that Harris would never get the chance to codify Roe v. Wade if elected because Congress “can never get this approved. So it doesn’t matter what she says about going to Congress. Wonderful. Let’s go to Congress.”
“She can’t get the vote. She won’t even come close to it,” Trump added.
His assessment of Harris’ chances of passing a law to restore the federal protections for abortion that existed before the Supreme Court struck them down in 2022 also applies to Republicans’ hopes of passing any kind of abortion ban.
Any such legislation would be tough to pass through the Senate without a Republican supermajority, except if a future Senate Republican majority were to majorly change Senate rules and eliminate the filibuster.
On Sunday, Vance echoed Trump’s remarks, telling moderator Kristen Welker that he and Trump “still haven’t discussed it, by the way, because it’s not realistic.”
The Ohio senator called any questions about a federal abortion ban “kind of a ridiculous hypothetical,” adding that “if a national abortion ban was brought before the United States Senate right now, it would get at best 10 senators out of 100.”
Vance also said that Trump has “been incredibly clear that he doesn’t support a national abortion ban. He wants abortion policy to be made by the states.”
