Power

Rep. Trent Franks Excuses Trump’s 2005 Comments by Citing Clinton’s Pro-Choice Policies

“Donald Trump's words degraded and insulted women in the most flagrant possible way, and yet Hillary Clinton's policy is to allow the murder of a half a million little tiny women every year," Franks said in an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett.

When pressed by host Burnett to clarify "what policies has [Clinton] put forth that would support assaults," Franks, who is also a member of Trump's anti-choice advisory council, quickly jumped to the Democrat's support for abortion rights. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) cited Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s pro-choice policies to dismiss criticism of Donald Trump’s recently uncovered comments from 2005, which discuss kissing and groping women apparently without their consent.

“My message is that somehow as a party, we have to clearly condemn the outrageous remarks that Donald Trump made. And yet also point out the difference between his words and Hillary Clinton’s policies,” said Franks during a Tuesday night appearance on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront.

When pressed by host Burnett to clarify “what policies has [Clinton] put forth that would support assaults,” Franks, who is also a member of Trump’s anti-choice advisory council, quickly jumped to the Democrat’s support for abortion rights.

“Well, the left has coarsened this culture in every way imaginable. You know, it is OK for adult men to walk into little girl’s restrooms,” claimed Franks, pointing to the false narrative of the “bathroom predator” to criticize LGBTQ anti-discrimination efforts.

“It’s OK to kill your unborn children or even your born children,” continued Franks. “And it’s OK to marry your horse.”

“But somehow when that manifests in a presidential campaign, all of a sudden the left feigns this outrage,” he went on, seeming to contrast Trump’s comments with the aforementioned issues.

“Donald Trump’s words degraded and insulted women in the most flagrant possible way, and yet Hillary Clinton’s policy is to allow the murder of a half a million little tiny women every year,” Franks concluded.

Burnett countered that Trump’s comments were “pretty outrageous,” and later asked the Republican representative whether he thought that Clinton “being pro-choice is equivalent to [Trump] grabbing women’s genitals.”

“No,” Franks said, but continued that Clinton is “standing by and supporting policies that allow abortion on demand for any reasons or no reason throughout the nine months in pregnancy and she wants taxpayers to pay for it. And if that statement isn’t accurate, why didn’t she say so?”

Contrary to Franks’ claim, Clinton has said that she does support some restrictions on later abortion care, as long as they include some exceptions. She has, however, also voiced her support for repealing the Hyde Amendment’s ban on most federal funding for abortion care.

Franks’ criticism of Clinton comes as no surprise, given his long history of using misinformation and falsehoods about abortion and reproductive rights to push his own beliefs. While in Congress, Franks introduced abortion restrictions based on medically and scientifically false claims about when a fetus can feel pain, and has helped lead the charge to ban so-called sex-selective and race-selective abortions, though no studies prove that is a problem in the United States. Reproductive rights and justice advocates say these bans rely on harmful stereotypes about women of color.

Franks is also not the first Trump supporter to raise the false equivalency of Clinton’s abortion policies against Trump’s 2005 comments.

In the wake of Trump’s comments, many anti-choice advocates and activists have used Clinton’s support for abortion access in order to justify their continued support for the Republican presidential nominee—including other members of Trump’s anti-choice advisory board and the leaders of radical anti-abortion group Operation Rescue.