Democratic Party - Democratic National Committee

09/16/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/16/2024 19:11

JD Vance: Anti-Choice Activists “Have a Seat” at Trump’s Table and “Always Will” Arrow

Ahead of JD Vance's event with the Georgia Faith and Freedom Coalition today, here's a reminder of his close ties and unpopular promises to this anti-choice group:

The last time JD Vance attended a Faith and Freedom Coalition event, he said anti-choice activists will "always have a seat" at the Trump-Vance ticket's table.

Vance: "There has been a lot of rumbling in the past few weeks that the Republican Party of now, the Republican Party of the future is not going to be a place that's welcoming to social conservatives. And really from the bottom of my heart I would say that is not true. Social conservatives have a seat at this table and they always will so long as I have any influence in this party, and President Trump I know agrees."

The Faith and Freedom Coalition is made up of anti-choice MAGA loyalists, including president and founder Ralph Reed, and has ties to anti-choice groups and conspiracy theorists like Alveda King and John Hagee.

Faith and Freedom Coalition: "Ralph Reed is the founder and chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, which he formed in 2009 to serve as a bridge between evangelical voters and the growing Tea Party movement."

CNN: "Anti-abortion groups to Trump: Don't water down GOP platform by removing support for federal ban"

"The sentiment was echoed last week by Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition and a close ally of the former president. Speaking during a virtual event hosted by the Washington Post, Reed publicly urged the Trump campaign 'to proceed with great caution in sending any message of vacillation or retreat when it comes to the defense of the innocent unborn.'"

Ralph Reed: "Now, just to be clear, our organization supports any pro-life law that will save any unborn child at any level of government-local, state, or federal. We would not only support the 20-week pain-capable bill, we would support a 15-week pain-capable bill. We would support a 12-week after the first trimester or a heartbeat bill or even a total ban. I mean, we're a pro-life organization."

Alveda King: "'A great victory for life was won last month as Roe v Wade was overturned, BUT President Biden and liberals in Congress are focused on expanding the death-care known as abortion. We must pray and we must act to save our unborn!"

Alveda King: "No numbers games, reverse abortion! Babies aren't political footballs We're dealing with human lives one blood/one race, human dignity Remember Trump's appointments of judges and justices helped bring down Roe v Wade Nothing's changed. Pres. Trump is still for life. 4myfriend."

US News & World Report: "Hagee endorsed Sen. John McCain in the 2008 presidential election, but McCain publicly renounced the endorsement after a previous sermon of Hagee's came to light in which Hagee appeared to assert that Adolf Hitler was half-Jewish and was sent by God to drive Jews to Israel. Hagee suggested that it was Jews' 'disobedience' of God that 'gave rise' to their persecution."

Media Matters: "Earlier in the [the September 18, 2006 edition of National Public Radio's Fresh Air host Terry] Gross had asked [Christians United For Israel Founder and National Chairman] Hagee if he believed that 'all Muslims have a mandate to kill Christians and Jews.' Hagee replied: 'Well, the Quran teaches that. Yes, it teaches that very clearly.'"

Media Matters: "In What Every Man Wants in a Woman, Hagee wrote: '…[Same-sex marriage] will open the door to incest, to polygamy, and every conceivable marriage arrangement demented minds can possibly conceive. If God does not then punish America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.' He also wrote: 'It is impossible to call yourself a Christian and defend homosexuality. There is no justification or acceptance of homosexuality,' and 'Homosexuality means the death of society because homosexuals can recruit, but they cannot reproduce'"

MSNBC: "It wasn't long before McCain was asked whether he agreed with Hagee's record of radicalism, including the pastor's claims that the Holocaust was a divine plan from God, Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for Pride parades in New Orleans, and women are 'only meant to be mothers and bear children.'"

Vance's anti-choice record includes wanting abortion to be "illegal nationally," criticizing exceptions for rape and incest, comparing abortion to slavery, and more.

CNN: "JD Vance said in 2022 he 'would like abortion to be illegal nationally'"

"During a podcast interview in January 2022, then-candidate JD Vance said he 'certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally' and was 'sympathetic' to the view that a national ban was necessary to stop women from traveling across states to obtain an abortion."

Newsweek: "J.D. Vance Backs 'National Standard' for Abortions"

Daily Beast: "J.D. Vance suggested he would support prohibiting abortion even in cases of rape and incest-and dismissed those catalysts as 'inconvenient.'"

Vice: "JD Vance Compared Abortion to Slavery"

The Hill: "During his campaign for Senate, Vance applauded the overturning of Roe v. Wade and supported Texas's ban on abortion, which does not allow exceptions other than cases where the mother's life is at risk.

"'Two wrongs don't make a right,' he said in 2021 when asked whether abortion laws should allow for exceptions for rape and incest."

JD Vance: "I think that what I really think on - so first of all, the Dobbs decision, everybody knows, overruled Roe v. Wade - I think that was the right decision."

NBC News: "Senate Republicans block Democratic bill codifying Roe v. Wade abortion protections"

"Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked legislation led by Democrats to revive the protections of Roe v. Wade in the wake of the Supreme Court eliminating the nationwide right to abortion."

Republicans who voted against include: JD Vance.

Just yesterday, Vance admitted Donald Trump STILL has not told him if he would veto a national abortion ban, after Trump refused to answer the same question on the debate stage.

Kristen Welker, NBC News: "If Donald Trump were to be elected, if a federal abortion ban were to land on his desk, would he veto it?"

Vance: "You heard the president say we hadn't discussed it. We still haven't discussed it … I've learned my lesson on speaking for the president before he and I have actually talked about an issue."

Forbes: "Vance Won't Say If Trump Would Veto An Abortion Ban-Walking Back Earlier Comments"

"Ohio Sen. JD Vance wouldn't say whether former president Donald Trump would veto a national abortion ban on Sunday-backtracking on comments from three weeks earlier, after Trump avoided saying whether he'd veto a ban in last week's presidential debate.

"Vance wouldn't say definitively whether Trump would veto a national abortion ban if passed by Congress."