Trump addresses conservative Christians who want to see him go further on banning abortion

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump gave the keynote speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “2024 Road to Majority” conference in Washington on Saturday, speaking to an evangelical group whose advocacy for a national abortion ban conflicts with Trump’s policy statements on the issue.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has walked a tightrope in his remarks on abortion restrictions, which Democrats see as a liability for the GOP going into November. Earlier this year, he declined to endorse a national abortion ban, saying the issue should be left to the states to decide.

“The people will decide, and that’s the way it should be. The people are now deciding,” Trump said Saturday, referring to legislation at the state level.

The former president, however, has waffled on the abortion issue for decades, referring to himself as “pro-choice” and “pro-life” at various times. On Saturday, he repeated that he supported exceptions that allow abortion when the mother’s life is at risk as well as in cases of rape and incest.

“I think most people do, actually, but some people don’t,” Trump said. “You have to go with your heart, but you have to also remember, you have to get elected.”

Despite their differences with Trump on a national ban, Christian conservatives make up a key part of the former president’s support base, and they have lauded his nomination of three Supreme Court justices who voted in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade in a decision that eliminated the federal constitutional right to an abortion.

The former president on Saturday took a victory lap for nominating those justices — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — and thanked the court’s conservative majority “for the wisdom and the courage they showed on this long-term, very contentious issue.”

The Faith and Freedom Coalition has advocated for abortion bans in many states since the Supreme Court’s June 2022 ruling. On Saturday, Trump’s ninth appearance at the group’s “Road to Majority” conference, the former president was welcomed with open arms.

“This man — among all the other things he did for this great nation — he appointed not one, not two, but three Supreme Court justices,” Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, said before Trump spoke, adding: “He’s a great friend of this organization.”

In his remarks, Trump rallied attendees to convince their fellow Christians to vote “just this once.”

“The evangelicals and the Christians, they don’t vote as much as they should. I don’t know if you know that,” Trump told the crowd, adding: “You know they go to church every Sunday, but they don’t vote, and we have to make sure they vote just this time, because all you have to do is this time.”

The former president added that the alternative, the re-election of President Joe Biden, would leave Christianity “in tatters.” He also called Biden “crooked,” a “Marxist,” “incompetent” and “a threat to democracy.”

“We need Christian voters to turn out and the largest numbers ever to tell crooked Joe Biden, ‘You’re fired. You’re fired, Joe. Get out of here,’” Trump said to cheers, referring to a signature line from his 2000s-era reality competition show “The Apprentice.”

Trump also said during his remarks that he pitched a migrant fighter league to UFC President Dana White.

“Why don’t you set up a migrant league of fighters and have your regular league of fighters,” Trump said he floated to White. “And then you have the champion of your league — these are the greatest fighters in the world — fight the champion of the migrants.”

“It’s not the worst idea I’ve ever had,” he added later.

In a statement, Biden campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika called Trump’s speech an “incoherent, unhinged tirade,” adding that it “showed voters in his own words that he is a threat to our freedoms and is too dangerous to be let anywhere near the White House again. The American people can and will stop him by reelecting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris this November.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com