Keller @ Large: Trump On Abortion - Oops!
BOSTON (CBS) - "There has to be some form of punishment" if abortion is ruled illegal in the future, said Donald Trump during an MSNBC interview Wednesday night.
"For the woman?" asked interviewer Chris Matthews?
"Yes, there has to be some form," replied Trump.
And Trump, seemingly unaware he'd just dug himself into a political hole, kept right on shoveling.
Q: "You say you want to ban it, what's that mean?"
Trump: "I am pro-life, yes."
Q: "How do you ban abortion, how do you do it?"
Trump: "You go back to a position like they had where people will perhaps go to illegal places, but you have to ban it."
Within hours, Trump was walking it all back, saying in a statement that if abortion were to become illegal, he would punish the abortionist for the violation, not the patient.
But the damage was done, with Trump's gaffe coming as both Democrats and Republicans move to exploit his sky-high negative ratings among women.
Ted Cruz already has a ten point lead over Trump in the latest Wisconsin poll.
And with Trump boosters like Newt Gingrich calling some of his recent campaign moves "utterly stupid," and Ann Coulter describing trump as "mental" and like a reckless teenager, even one of his top local supporters is getting nervous.
"What I think you're seeing is a first-time guy who's running, who's been doing this for eight months now, not used to the questions that get asked on the campaign trail," says Rep. Geoff Diehl (R-Whitman), the highest-ranking Massachusetts elected official to endorse Trump.
Diehl says he expects Trump to rebound from this, but he'd better hurry. Wisconsin votes on Tuesday, and the polling trend is toward a spanking for Trump that could throw a major cramp into his march to the nomination.
