Trump’s taped remarks to the Danbury Institute’s Life & Liberty Forum on Monday will be relatively short, according to a Trump campaign official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the speech. Trump will not mention abortion specifically but plans to tell the group that now is the time “for us all to pull together” and “defend religious liberty, free speech, innocent life, and the heritage and traditions that built America into the greatest nation in the history of the world,” the official said.
Biden’s campaign has repeatedly called out Trump’s plans to speak to the group, highlighting a section on the Danbury Institute’s website that states: “Abortion must be ended. We will not rest until it is eradicated entirely.”
The Christian group has also asserted in statements that “abortion is never medically necessary to save the life of a mother” and that “aborting an innocent child conceived in rape or incest only compounds the injustice and pain caused by the initial crime.”
“Four more years of Donald Trump means empowering organizations like the Danbury Institute who want to ban abortion nationally and punish women who have abortions,” Biden campaign spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika said in a statement Friday.
In an emailed statement Friday, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt defended Trump’s plans to deliver virtual remarks to the Danbury Institute.
“President Trump is committed to addressing groups with diverse opinions on all of the issues, as evidenced by his recent speech at the Libertarian Convention, his meetings with the unions, and his efforts to campaign in diverse neighborhoods across the country,” she wrote.
When asked about anything related to reproductive rights, Trump has lately defaulted to saying it should be left to the states, as he attempts to walk a fine line on an issue that has been shown to motivate Democratic voters. However, Trump has also continued to take credit for appointing three of the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade.
“Trump brags that he is responsible for overturning Roe, he thinks the extreme state bans happening now because of him are ‘working very brilliantly,’ and if he’s given the chance, he will sign a national abortion ban,” Chitika said Friday. “These are the stakes this November.”
A program for the Danbury Institute event on Monday states that the forum will explore “topics surrounding life and liberty and especially how churches can change the course of a country, as well as “opportunities to grow our coalition as we uphold the Judeo-Christian values upon which our nation was built.”
Other speakers in the lineup Monday for the Life & Liberty Forum include figures from the Southern Baptist Convention and former Kansas governor Sam Brownback, who served as Trump’s ambassador at large for international religious freedom and who was slammed by Democrats and liberal groups for his anti-LGBTQ+ policies.
Marianne LeVine contributed to this report.
