The Primary’s Long Over But Trump and Pence’s Catfight Rages on

It’s been nearly six months since Mike Pence dropped out of the Republican presidential primary, but he and former President Trump are reviving their nasty little feud, this time over abortion. In response to Trump spewing nonsense about how he doesn’t support a national abortion ban and wants the issue to be decided by the states—an outcome that’s already been disastrous for pregnant people—Pence called Trump’s position “a slap in the face” to the anti-abortion movement.

“By nominating and standing by the confirmation of conservative justices, the Trump-Pence Administration helped send Roe v. Wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs and gave the pro-life movement the opportunity to compassionately support women and unborn children,” Pence wrote in a tweet this week. Of course, by “compassionately supporting women,” what he really means is forcing people to be pregnant and give birth against their will, even at the expense of their health and safety.

Pence continued, “The American people elect presidents, senators and congressmen, and a majority of Americans long to see minimum national protections for the unborn in federal law. But today, too many Republican politicians are all too ready to wash their hands of the battle for life.” Pence then claimed “Republicans win on life,” even when abortion rights have cost Republicans some pretty key races and abortion rights ballot measures have won in almost every state.

Then, early Wednesday, never one to spare Pence a good bashing, Trump went after his former veep on Truth Social. “Former Vice President (thank you President Trump!) Mike Pence has been doing a lot of talking about Abortion lately,” he wrote. Trump claimed Pence “never felt I would be able to kill Roe v Wade and bring it back to the States,” then accused Pence of being inconsistent on the issue: “He started at no abortion for any reason, and then allowing abortions for up to 6 weeks, then up to 15 weeks, and then, who knows?” And he also punched down at Pence for losing the Republican primary because he took “bad advice” on the very issue of abortion.

As I wrote on Monday, none of this performative fighting actually means anything. “My view is now that we have abortion where everyone wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both. And whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state,” Trump said in a video message on Monday morning. “Many states will be different,” he continued. “Many will have a different number of weeks, or some will have more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be. At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people. You must follow your heart or in many cases, your religion or your faith. Do what’s right for your family and do what’s right for yourself.”

In addition to Pence, a prominent national anti-abortion organization and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) have also come out against Trump’s position. But this “leave it up to the states” nonsense is the reason abortion access has been decimated in certain parts of the country, and states like Arizona can enact a pre-Civil War abortion ban, as we saw on Tuesday. There’s also the reality that there’s no real reason to believe he wouldn’t ban abortion. Trump may be pretending to be reasonable and moderate but he and Pence are effectively on the same page—and that is sniping at each other, probably for no other real reason than that they hate each other’s guts, and have for some time. Mind you, the former president has previously defended his supporters who stormed the Capitol calling for Pence to be hanged, and in August, Pence submitted evidence against Trump for his indictment related to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. So, what’s one more thing to fight about, I guess!