DeSantis slams Trump as 'not pro-life'

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis knocked former President Trump as someone who is “not pro-life" and argued that the former president “flip-flipped” on the issue of abortion on Thursday. 

“Of course not,” DeSantis said during a CNN town hall in Des Moines, Iowa when he was asked if Trump was not “pro-life.”

“I mean, when you're saying that pro-life protections are a ‘terrible thing,’ by definition, you are not pro-life," DeSantis said.

DeSantis was referencing comments Trump made last year with NBC’s “Meet the Press” in which he called DeSantis’s decision to sign a six-week abortion ban as a “terrible thing.” 

“I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake. But we'll come up with a number, but at the same time, Democrats won't be able to go out at six months, seven months, eight months and allow an abortion,” Trump told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker when he was asked if he would support a five- or six-week abortion ban. 

The issue of abortion has bedeviled Republican candidates since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. The issue has continued to motivate turnout among the Democratic base and sway even Republicans and independent voters.  

Trump has sought to walk a fine line over the issue, largely dodging questions over whether he would support restrictions around access to the medical procedure at the federal level. However, he has also previously pointed to his role in nominating three of the justices that would make up the majority opinion in the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. 

DeSantis has said he would support federal restrictions at 15 weeks, while former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley has said that Republicans don’t have the needed 60 votes in the Senate to pass restrictions federally, arguing they need to find a “consensus.”