DeSantis recently mixed it up on camera with NBC reporter Dasha Burns in a recent interview. In a wide-ranging interview, it was the issue of abortion that caught a lot of attention.
“I would not allow what a lot of the Left wants to do," he said, "which is to override pro-life protections throughout the country, all the way up really until the moment of birth in some instances, which I think is infanticide.”
On the hot-button issue of abortion, voters should take DeSantis at his word, Dustin Carmack, the campaign’s policy director, said on American Family Radio on Tuesday.
“The Governor has said he will be a pro-life president," Carmack told show host Jenna Ellis. "If anything, not only does he talk the talk, he walks the walk when it comes to what he did here in Florida."
In April, DeSantis signed into law a bill banning abortions in Florida at six weeks. Abortion supporters fear he would seek the same ban coast-to-coast if elected president.
With his presidential campaign struggling to gain momentum, some viewed DeSantis' appearance on NBC as a campaign strategy shift to make him more available for less-friendly media outlets. He appeared on CNN in July, too.
In the NBC interview, Burns challenged DeSantis on his claim Democrats have a radical view on abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.
“I’ve got to push back on you on that,” she said, citing CDC data, “because that’s a misrepresentation of what’s happening. I mean, 1.3% of abortions happen at 21 weeks (of pregnancy) or higher. There is no indication of Democrats pushing for that.”
Burns' supposed fact-check on DeSantis was fact-checked by knowledgeable conservatives, including an NRO story that cited state laws in liberal states and quoted Democrat lawmakers. In a similar Twitter thread, Curtis Houck of the Media Research Center also cited state laws in Colorado, Maine, and New York.
DeSantis pushed back, too, but his answer was cut off in the interview that aired. So his campaign shared his complete response on social media.
“Well, yes they are,” DeSantis countered. “They’ve done it in California. They’ve done it in other states. I don’t say that’s the norm in terms of this, but I do think the Left in this country has moved on from a position that said, ‘You know what, we do want to discourage abortion, it’s not something that’s a good thing,’ to now viewing it more as a positive good for society.”
Democrats and the media might fact-check that comment, too, but Republicans and pro-life activists still remember the "safe, legal, and rare" catchphrase from the 1990s.
A 2019 Washington Post story pointed out Democrats had "purged" that slogan from their party.
Abortion is viewed as a sacred-like right among radical Democrats and that belief only grew stronger and more radical after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade last summer.
Back in the AFR interview, Carmack said DeSantis can take his pro-life message and his pro-life record as Florida governor to the White House.
“This will be a fight," he predicted, "and you’ll need a president who is speaking articulately on this subject but also showing sympathy and showing that the culture of life is important."
