He even quoted Bill Clinton…
In a telling segment on Fox News last night, host Sean Hannity quoted former President Bill Clinton on abortion messaging.
Reflecting on the drubbing social conservatives received this week in Republican-leaning Ohio, Hannity closed out his show by suggesting the GOP’s uncompromising views on abortion risk alienating suburban voters.
Hannity pointed to the Issue 1 vote in Ohio. If approved by the majority of voters, the stricter rules to pass constitutional amendments would’ve made it very difficult to overturn Ohio’s six-week abortion ban. Instead, voters rejected the measure in a 15-point landslide. Opponents came out in droves in the Democratic bastions of Columbus and Cleveland. But, more troubling, “no” votes also poured in from Republican suburban strongholds and blue collar counties dominated by right-wing populism. (RELATED: Ohio Voters Reject State Constitutional Change Proposed By GOP Legislature)
Not everyone on the panel agreed with Hannity’s concerns. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told Sean that Republicans have a messaging problem.
“I do not,” Huckabee said in response to whether he agreed with Hannity’s premise. “I think the problem is Republicans have done a very pitiful job of explaining that the difference is we want to protect life, Democrats want to take it right up to the point of birth. They want to butcher a fully developed child. We’ve got to take it to the Democrats. Quit playing defense. Let’s be clear about what we stand for.”
Tudor Dixon, who came up 10.6 points short of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) in the 2022 Michigan gubernatorial election, disagreed, as Mediate noted:
“Their message is very strong on this,” she said. “They’ve won over women. We saw it. We just saw it in Ohio. We have to start fighting on the cultural side of it, and we have to fight on the issues that matter to people politically on the political side in a different way.”
Dixon’s defeat came the same night Michigan voters approved a measure enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution.
Hannity ended the segment by suggesting the GOP is not fully aligned with the rest of the country on abortion:
I think the American people– and I consider myself pro-life, I believe in the sanctity of life, but I think politically that there is– Republicans have gotta say as Bill Clinton once said – I never thought I’d quote him – “rare,” “legal,” and I’d add the word[s], “very early in a pregnancy.” That seems to be – politically – where the country is. Maybe I’m wrong. But we’ll see. That vote in Ohio is pretty, pretty sobering.
Many Republican strategists believe the abortion issue cost the party dearly in 2022 and worry the same could happen in 2024. What do you think? Is this a messaging issue or an Achilles heel for Republicans that requires serious evaluation?
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So it’s alright to kill a human baby as long as the killers agree on the time.
Okay to kill a baby if it is tiny? Those that support murdering a baby at any size or stage of development are MONSTERS IMPERSONATING HUMAN BEINGS.
Sean, excuse me if I am incorrect, but sometime back I read that you are no longer a member of the Catholic Church. I believe this issue is in God’s Hands and do not agree that abortion is acceptable in any case. “Thou shalt not Kill!”
It is definitely a messaging problem for Republicans. It is not effective to only continue with hardline rhetoric and legislative proposals that they present as single issue things when Democrats effectively frame the opposing argument as intertwined multiple issues that threaten a broader expanse of the voting public and their much broader concerns. It is becoming clearer and clearer that small battles must be won in order to make it to the bigger battles. Effective counter-messaging by Republicans on things like Issue 1 were sorely lacking and should not have been about hoping that democrats wouldn’t show up or about just repeating the same single message more loudly but about actually recognizing these other concerns that democrats have framed and providing accurate and fact based counter arguments. At some point they have to learn how to convince others to vote with them or for them that normally would not!
IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT THE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE WANT, ITS WHAT IS RIGHT IN THE EYES IF GOD. HE SAYS “DO NOT MURDER” SO IS IT RIGHT TO FOLLOW THE MAORITY DOWN THE WIDE PATH WHICH LEADS TO DESTRUCTION? OR GO WITH THE MINORITY AND END UP WITH ETERNAL LIFE? I CHOOSE LIFE.
I believe he is right and that is why DeSantis is doing so poorly in the polls.
I am all for restrictions but 6 weeks is too severe.
The gop has been losing elections ever since roe, and instead of shutting their pie holes and deal with the issue after elected, they choose to publicly fall on their swords every cycle. There are lots of other issues, leave infanticide to the democrats!
I absolutely agree and thought as much ever since Roe. I knew this would be the Republican party’s downfall immediately which it was and continues to be. It became a huge issue with Republicans unfortunately and still is and they won’t stop talking about it. I fail to understand why they don’t see this.
Sean is an ex- Catholic who thinks he knows it all . Always been a liberal when it comes to “reproductive health “ … most Christians are pro- life without any excuses .
Hannity is right. Abortion is a big issue, but it’s far outweighed by much more important, potentially nation-destroying issues, such as the Constitution, the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Supreme Court, the deep state bureaucracy, the weaponized DOJ, security state apparatus, and IRS. The list goes on and on. If these things cannot be addressed in a way that moves the country back toward sanity, then the country is a lost case, and abortion was basically a nothing-burger distraction that played far too large a role in the demise of America.
The baby butchers have killed 63 million people…over ten times the toll attributed to Hitler. That’s a pretty big role in our demise.
In Reagan’s era, the standard political position was: I am PERSONALLY opposed to abortion. Republicans should adopt some similar phrase, as they will not be able to legislate an end to abortion. They should tell the voters that the Dobbs decision left the issue to the states. Period. If Rep. Omar tried to pass legislation forcing women to wear scarves (as in many Muslim countries), she would not be elected, either. Pick your battles. If Republicans want to die on a hill named ‘abortion,’ they lose the election AND they leave the country to the Dictator Party.
As I recall, the SCOTUS did not ban abortions and instead ruled it isn’t the business of the federal government. I heartily agree with the ruling and would opine it also is not the business of any government. Seems to me this kind of meddling is not political business in any way.
Fact is it seems funding of this procedure also is neither a federal nor state function and most would vote to stop the overreach. Another fact is, this is a private matter between an obstetrician and patient. Allowing ignorant political activists to influence the issue is outrageous.
They have a right to free speech but also a punishable responsibility for harmful printed material or channeling unsolicited funds.