Freeland — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump thanked US Supreme Court justices for overturning Roe v. Wade during a campaign rally Wednesday in mid-Michigan, arguing critics of the 50-year-old decision cementing abortion rights at the federal level had wanted it to be decided by the states.
From an airport tarmac in Freeland, the former president told supporters in the electoral battleground of Saginaw County — a perennial bellwether in Michigan for presidential elections — that the state-focused approach to abortion removed much of the controversy surrounding the issue. But he also cautioned candidates on their abortion messaging this election year.
“You have to fight for what’s in your heart and what’s the right thing to do, but remember you also have to get elected,” Trump said from the tarmac at MBS International Airport.
The statement came as Democrats in 2022 swept Michigan’s three highest offices and both chambers of the state Legislature on campaigns that centered on threats to abortion access and a successful effort to cement reproductive rights in the state constitution.
Trump has said he’ll leave policy decisions on abortion access to the states. In an interview published Tuesday by Time magazine, he added that he would also let states decide whether to prosecute women for abortions or whether to monitor women’s pregnancies.
On Wednesday, he noted some states had adopted more liberal abortion policies after the Supreme Court’s landmark June 2022 Dobbs decision while others have stricter bans on the procedure. But he also noted that at some “point in the life cycle, it just can’t be allowed.”
“I just want to thank the Supreme Court for the wisdom and the courage,” Trump said of the ruling overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade precedent for a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy. “… This took a great deal of courage and a great deal of wisdom to do this.”
Trump’s stop in Freeland marks his first visit to Michigan since an agent for Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office said he is considered an unindicted co-conspirator in an effort to overturn the 2020 election. Trump’s campaign stop in Saginaw County came on an off day in his ongoing trial in New York over allegations of falsifying business records to cover up an affair. Trump visited the same location in September 2020, ahead of the last presidential election, drawing an estimated 5,000 people.
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Donald Trump speaks at rally in Freeland, Mich,
Donald Trump speaks at rally in Freeland, Mich,
Democrats pre-empted Trump’s visit Wednesday with a warning of their own, arguing the former president could not be trusted to leave untouched the hard-fought wins on abortion rights in states like Michigan.
Govt. Gretchen Whitmer spoke at a campaign event Wednesday morning in Flint for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, warning that abortion and other reproductive rights were at a “precarious moment” across the nation. The Democratic governor and Biden campaign co-chair criticized abortion bans in other states, including a six-week ban taking effect Wednesday in Florida, as “incredibly cruel and ill-informed.”
While Michigan voters enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution in 2022, that work could be upended by a federal ban. Whitmer said the coalition that was built up in Michigan in 2022 to protect abortion rights needed to stay activated through the 2024 presidential election.
“I want to invite those Republicans and independents who support a women’s right to choose back into this moment because the work is not yet done,” Whitmer said. “… Any vote short of an affirmative vote for the Harris-Biden agenda puts all of this back into jeopardy.”
Biden is returning to Michigan on May 19 to speak at the NAACP Detroit Branch’s 69th annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner in Detroit.
Trump slams hush money trial
Days after being fined for violating a court-ordered gag order, Trump criticized his ongoing hush money trial in New York, framing the court proceeding as a “Biden sideshow trial” before a corrupt and conflicted judge.
Trump is on trial in Manhattan for allegedly falsifying business records to cover up an extramarital affair with porn star Stormy Daniels from becoming public before the 2016 election.
“Here’s the good news: It’s driven the poll numbers higher than we’ve ever had before,” Trump told supporters in Michigan. He argued voters saw through the “sham.”
“The ultimate verdict on this travesty will not come in a courtroom,” he added. “It will come at the ballot box and the American people are going to find crooked Joe Biden guilty of trying to destroy our country.”
EV push gets panned
The former president also slammed government electric vehicle mandates and subsidies as he kicked off his campaign stop.
Trump said Biden’s push for electric vehicles would spur an “economic bloodbath” that would give China a larger foothold in the US automotive industry. Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency in March finalized rules that would require automakers to determine their sales mix to comply with the greenhouse gas tailpipe emissions limits for light-duty vehicle fleets for model years 2027 to 2032 and beyond.
Separately, Michigan’s Democratic-led Legislature and Whitmer’s administration have authorized hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives for electric vehicle battery projects.
Trump said he would instead place tariffs on foreign cars, “keep Chinese cars the hell out of America” and give people the option of internal combustion, hybrid or election vehicles.
“Whatever the hell you want you should be able to get,” he said.
Earlier Wednesday, Whitmer, when asked about Trump’s frequent criticisms of her and Biden’s push towards electric vehicles, said the nation has to remain “shrewd” about the future of mobility and the US’s ability to remain on the cutting edge of the global auto industry.
“We’ve got to incentivize innovation, there’s no question,” Whitmer said during a Biden campaign event in Flint. “We cannot let Chinese companies be the only ones innovating around electric vehicles because then they will eat our lunch the way we’re seeing happen in Europe.”
‘It’s backfiring’
Hours before Trump took the stage, hundreds of people were in line outside the venue by about 2 pm Fred Nienstedt, 67, of Clinton Township, was gathering petition signatures from attendees for a ballot proposal that aims to eliminate property taxes in Michigan.
“I’ve known that Trump is going to win this election for a couple years,” said Nienstedt, while holding a cup of soup. “It’s not even a contest. It’s ordained in heaven itself.”
Nienstedt specifically touted Trump’s stances against foreign wars and in favor of reducing taxes. Nienstedt also mentioned independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Nienstedt said will take votes away from Biden.
“Mr. Kennedy is an angel from heaven,” Nienstedt said.
Trump lost Michigan to Biden by 3 percentage points in November 2020, 48%-51% or 154,000 votes. But ahead of their expected rematch this fall, early polling has shown the Republican with a slight lead in Michigan against the incumbent.
“It’s a big key for anybody,” Trump said of Michigan during a radio interview with WJR-AM (760) on Tuesday.
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During a court hearing in Ingham County last week, Howard Shock, a special agent for the Michigan Attorney General’s office, testified that Trump is considered an unindicted co-conspirator in the plot to submit a certificate falsely claiming he won Michigan’s 2020 election.
The Democratic Attorney General’s office charged 16 Republicans whose names appeared on the certificate with eight felonies each in July, including forgery. But evidence gathered by state investigators has pointed to officials and advisers with Trump’s campaign helping to orchestrate the effort as they discussed ways to change the outcome of the election in Congress. Trump and his campaign advisers haven’t been charged with crimes in Michigan.
Nessel’s office has not commented on Shock’s remark about Trump. The former president is considered an unindicted co-conspirator in a similar investigation in Arizona.
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Shock’s statement in court is among a wave of legal concerns and allegations facing Trump as he attempts to run a national presidential campaign to unseat Biden.
On Tuesday, Trump was held in contempt of court and fined $9,000 for violating a gag order that barred him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to his New York hush money case, according to the Associated Press.
During his appearance on WJR, Trump said Tuesday that his New York case should never have been brought and the various trials he’s facing were political interference.
“They did it for political reasons,” Trump said during the radio interview. “But think of it. Here I am, running for president, and I have a gag order from a highly political judge.”
Dick Kleinhardt, a 76-year-old farmer from Clare, wore a shirt to Wednesday’s rally that featured an image of Trump and the words “four time indictment champion.” Kleinhardt described the former president as a “wonderful man” and the 2020 election as stolen.
“We have the perfect right and ability to question our elections,” Kleinhardt said.
Pete Hoekstra, chairman of the Michigan Republican Party, said he wasn’t worried about the litigation involving Trump. Democrats are trying to influence the outcome of the election, Hoekstra contended.
“They haven’t thought it out,” Hoekstra said. “And it’s backfiring on them.”
The charges Nessel brought against the Republican electors were “outrageous,” Hoekstra said. The chairman added that the Michigan GOP state committee approved a resolution in support of the electors over the weekend.
Outside the Freeland airport hangar Wednesday, Tom McGough, 64, of Caro, wore a hat that said, “I stand with Trump.”
McGough said he favors Trump’s stances on improving security at the southern border and protecting gun rights. The prices of gas and groceries were also on McGough’s mind.
“That hurts,” McGough said. “I am a retiree now. And that hurts.”
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Tags: Trump praises high court overturning abortion rights Michigan rally
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