Trump advocates abortion restrictions and boasts about ending Roe vs. Wade – at the latest

After the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Last year Republicans said the Supreme Court ruling left abortion restrictions solely to states.

But anti-abortion lawmakers and candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination are pushing for a statewide ban that would also override state laws protecting and expanding access to abortion.

Republicans in Congress have passed several anti-abortion measures with national implications, and candidates competing for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination are endorsing national bans.

Trump, however, has provided muddled answers as nationwide polls have found anti-abortion laws are overwhelmingly unpopular. He has also blamed anti-abortion legislation for Republican losses in the 2022 midterm election.

“One of the reasons they wanted it Roe vs Wade ending…is bringing it back to the states where many people firmly believe that the greatest advances for pro-life are now occurring,” he said Saturday at the influential right-wing Faith & Freedom Coalition conference .

But he said there remains “a critical role for the federal government in protecting unborn life.”

In his comments at an influential right-wing religious conference on Saturday, Trump acknowledged the end of abortion rights enshrined therein roe vs wade, overturned by the US Supreme Court a year ago.

The crowd gave him a standing ovation as he referred to the verdict, a long-awaited political outcome from the religious right.

“Exactly one year ago today, these judges were the pivotal voices in the Supreme Court’s landmark decision ending the constitutional atrocity Roe vs Wade,” he said.

Eric Garcia has more from Washington DC:

Trump’s campaign has funneled more money into a political action committee for his 2024 presidential bid, which has been used to cover his legal fees as the former president faces multiple indictments and investigations in multiple jurisdictions in at least three states.

Of every dollar raised online for his campaign since it launched in November, 99 cents have gone to the campaign, while a penny has gone to PAC Save America.

But he appears to have adjusted that split, sending 90 percent of donations to his campaign and another 10 percent to Save America — a move that said may have increased his PAC by at least $1.5 million The New York Times.

According to this, Save America spent $1.9 million on legal expenses in the first half of 2022 The times. That spending rose to $14.6 million in the second half of last year, according to filings reviewed by the newspaper.

The two leading Republican presidential candidates have had very different interview experiences with Fox News over the past week — each an example of the impact even a battered Fox can have on the Republican nomination process.

A former FBI analyst has been sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of illegally storing confidential documents in a case that bears similarities to former President Donald Trump’s legal case.

Kendra Kingsbury, 50, worked as an analyst for the FBI for 12 years and had a top secret security clearance when she was accused of taking classified documents from the secure work area and storing them at her Kansas City home.

In a post on his Truth Social platform Saturday morning, Trump blamed Joe Biden for a number of foreign policy decisions and baselessly accused the president of “illegally” taking “millions and millions of dollars” from China, Ukraine and “many other countries.”

“Why hundreds of billions of dollars are being donated to Ukraine unchecked,” he wrote.

Trump has repeatedly said he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine, which would withdraw aid and force a negotiated settlement, while the Biden administration has continued to support aid to the war-torn country and reiterated US support amid the crisis.

“We are focused on making sure Ukraine’s armed forces have everything they need to be successful,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House on Friday.

Elise Stefanik, the fourth-highest ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, and right-wing hardliner Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced two resolutions that, if passed, would aim to change the record “as if such articles had never been passed.”

South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who once said Donald Trump’s “entire legacy was wiped out by the Capitol riot” (which led him to defiantly support her main opponent Katie Arrington last year), is unlikely to be the next candidate touted by the former president’s sidekick after reinventing herself as his arch-defender.

The group Republican Accountability has published a new ad criticizing former President Donald Trump’s excuse that he is too “busy” to return boxes of classified documents to the US government.

First at a rally at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey last week and then again during a Fox News interview earlier this week, Mr Trump claimed he did not return the documents because they were mixed up with his personal belongings and he hasn’t. I haven’t had a chance to go through them when the federal government called.

Josh Marcus has the story.