A Republican Senate candidate endorsed by President Donald Trump froze, then laughed, when a debate moderator asked her to define the “reasonable access” to abortion she says she supports.
Republican nominee Michele Tafoya faced Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D-MN) on Friday in a debate for Minnesota’s open U.S. Senate seat.
It was the race’s only scheduled debate, according to MPR News, whose politics editor, Brian Bakst, moderated the hourlong broadcast.
“You’ve said that you support reasonable access in the first three months of pregnancy,” Bakst said. “Define what that means and whether you would support legislation to outlaw it past that first trimester.”
“I am a pro-choice Republican,” Tafoya replied. “I have said that from the very beginning.”
“When Roe v. Wade was overturned, this issue was kicked back to the states,” she said. “Minnesota made its decisions about this issue, and it is settled law. And I have no desire from the United States Senate to change that law.”
“Is there any time she has stood up to her party and said, ‘I disagree’?” Tafoya asked, turning the question on Flanagan.
“What does reasonable access mean?” Bakst pressed.
Tafoya opened her mouth to respond, but no sound came for several seconds.
“Three months … I am … eh …” the candidate stammered after the silent pause, her words eventually garbling into laughter.
“You know what? Reasonable access is reasonable access!” she exclaimed. “In Minnesota, you’ve got access up to nine months.”
Flanagan pushed back against the pro-choice Republican label Tafoya has embraced in her ads.
“This is yet another place where we are getting two different versions of Michele Tafoya,” Flanagan said when Bakst turned to her. “She said very clearly to Republican delegates a letter that she signed her name to that said, I am completely aligned with Donald Trump on the issue of abortion.”
“You cannot call yourself completely aligned with Donald Trump on abortion and then somehow call yourself pro-choice,” Flanagan said. “It’s ridiculous!”
A letter containing that language disappeared from Tafoya’s campaign website within days of her winning the Republican nomination, Tim Stanley, chair of the Planned Parenthood of Minnesota Political Action Fund, wrote in a Star Tribune op-ed.
Stanley wrote that the letter said Tafoya was “completely aligned with President Donald Trump on this issue” and supported the 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
“I’m in line with President Trump on this,” Tafoya said earlier this year on the conservative radio show Political Pitchforks.
“So, my stance is not the stance of the Minnesota laws as they exist, which I believe are awful and they go too far,” Tafoya told the show’s hosts in the same interview.
She has said she supports “reasonable access” in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, MPR News reported.
“You have to vote for Michele Tafoya, who is a very respected person,” Trump said at a rally in Ohio on Monday.
A Minnesota Star Tribune/KARE 11 poll published Monday showed Flanagan leading Tafoya 47% to 43%, with about 9% undecided, MPR News reported.
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