Overturning Roe v. Wade was one of Donald Trump’s big campaign promises, so you’d think that would have been part of his discussions with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Not so, claims Trump.
"Did you bring up the issue of abortion in your interviews with Brett Kavanaugh?" a reporter asked Trump as he was departing for the NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium.
"No, I haven't. I really haven't," Trump replied.
A typical Trump lie? Almost certainly. But if it’s not, that’s probably because Trump didn’t need to ask. It was something that went without saying. As Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza reminded us Monday night, Kavanaugh has a recent high-profile anti-abortion vote on his record, to deny an undocumented teenager access to abortion (he was in the minority on that). He’s also in favor of allowing a boss to deny workers birth control coverage. Kavanaugh’s views on abortion are not exactly a mystery, in other words, and anti-abortion groups are thrilled.
Whether Trump is lying when he says he didn’t ask Kavanaugh about the issue—and he is probably lying—or whether he knew he didn’t have to ask because Kavanaugh was a known quantity almost doesn’t matter.