Trump dusts off the GOP’s 2022 abortion playbook: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.

In today’s edition, political reporter Allan Smith examines how Donald Trump's new abortion stance takes a page from the GOP's 2022 midterm playbook. Plus, senior political editor Mark Murray asks if policy announcements from Trump and Joe Biden on Monday were blotted out by the total solar eclipse.

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Trump dusts off the GOP’s 2022 abortion playbook

By Allan Smith

Donald Trump’s just-released position on abortion rights was tried and tested during the 2022 midterms — and the results for his party were mixed at best.

Pressed for months on whether he would support federal abortion restrictions as president, Trump on Monday said the issue should be left to the states.

“My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both,” he said in a video statement. “And whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state. Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks, or some will have more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be.”

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Many Republican candidates took this tack in the midterm cycle after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, seeking to sidestep taking a position on federal legislation by saying the question was up to the states — even though the federal government can act on the issue.

For example, Republicans Mehmet Oz, Don Bolduc and