Vance backtracks on whether Trump would veto national abortion ban

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance on Sunday dodged answering whether former President Donald Trump would veto a national abortion ban if he were president.

“I think that I’ve learned my lesson on speaking for the president before he and I have actually talked about an issue,” Vance said on NBC.

Trump’s “been incredibly clear that he doesn’t support a national abortion ban,” Vance said in an interview with Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press.” “He wants abortion policy to be made by the states, because he thinks, look, Alabama is going to make a different decision from California, and that’s OK. We’re a big country. We can disagree.”

When pressed on if Trump would veto a national abortion if brought to his desk as president, Vance wouldn’t commit to an answer. Instead, Vance said Sunday that Trump “thinks it’s ridiculous to talk about vetoing a piece of legislation that isn’t going to come before the president in the first place.”

The discussion comes after Trump dodged answering whether he would veto a national abortion ban during Tuesday’s debate. But in August, Vance claimed that Trump would veto a national abortion ban because he does not support it.

“I think he would, he said that explicitly,” Vance said when Welker asked if Trump would veto a national abortion ban back in August.

“I didn’t discuss it with JD,” Trump said during the debate, adding: “I don’t mind if he has a certain view but I don’t think he was speaking for me.”