If there was ever a hope that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was a “different” kind of Democrat, that has now been completely debunked.

You see, RFK Jr. was asked about abortion. Now, he has never prevented himself as a “Blue Dog” pro-life Democrat, so his answer wasn’t surprising for its support of abortion. No, his answer was surprising because he actually put a time limit on abortions as a policy that he would endorse.

Here’s the full exchange with Kennedy, in which I ask the questions multiple times to make sure we’re understanding- even at one point saying I was surprised by the stance.

Full story here and video TK: https://t.co/NHWNhlaLL5 https://t.co/t9NbrnqRG4 pic.twitter.com/U9FBPDNY2A

— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) August 14, 2023

Apparently, RFK Jr. – or his handlers and staff – remembered that he’s a Democrat, so limits on abortion are NOT ALLOWED. Time for some backtracking!

Democratic presidential hopeful and known anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Sunday that he would support a national ban on abortion after the first three months of pregnancy if elected, only to walk back the stance hours later alleging he “misunderstood” repeated questions from NBC News on the topic.”

“Mr. Kennedy misunderstood a question posed to him by an NBC reporter in a crowded, noisy exhibit hall at the Iowa State Fair,” a spokesperson said, clarifying the candidate’s stance on abortion as “always” being the woman’s right to choose. Kennedy “does not support legislation banning abortion,” the spokesman added.”

But Sunday morning, Kennedy was much more specific, telling NBC: “I believe a decision to abort a child should be up to the women during the first three months of life.” Pressed on whether that meant signing a federal ban at 15 or 21 weeks, he said yes.”

“Once a child is viable, outside the womb, I think then the state has an interest in protecting the child,” he continued, adding “I’m for medical freedom. Individuals are able to make their own choices.”

This is honestly a regrettable decision by RFK Jr. No, there is no way that Republicans should support him, even for the chaos value, because he’s a Democrat. But it honestly would have been a refreshing change FOR the Democrats to have some alternate points of view and options that more broadly reflect the nation’s mood at large. As Pew Research has pointed out in their own polling data, support for abortion drops (with “life of the mother” exceptions) over the course of the pregnancy.

The survey data shows that as pregnancy progresses, opposition to legal abortion grows and support for legal abortion declines. Americans are about twice as likely to say abortion should be legal at six weeks than to say it should be illegal at this stage of a pregnancy: 44% of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal at six weeks (including those who say it should be legal in all cases without exception), 21% say it should be illegal at six weeks (including those who say abortion should always be illegal), and another 19% say whether it should be legal or not at six weeks “depends.” (An additional 14% say the stage of pregnancy shouldn’t factor into determining whether abortion is legal or illegal, including 7% who generally think abortion should be legal, and 6% who generally think it should be illegal.)”

At 14 weeks, the share saying abortion should be legal declines to 34%, while 27% say illegal and 22% say “it depends.”

When asked about the legality of abortion at 24 weeks of pregnancy (described as a point when a healthy fetus could survive outside the woman’s body, with medical attention), Americans are about twice as likely to say abortion should be illegal as to say it should be legal at this time point (43% vs. 22%), with 18% saying “it depends.”

So, RFK Jr. had the correct view of the polling data when he initially responded to Ali Vitali’s question about a federal ban at 15 or 21 weeks. However, this answer cannot stand, because as Ali Vitali says, “I’m surprised to hear you say you’d cap it.” Meaning that EVERYONE KNOWS that Democrats do not support any abortion limits, so why would RFK Jr. even suggest that?

Has Ali Vitali ever talked to Dasha Burns? After all, they both work for NBC! Dasha Burns did a sit-down interview with Ron DeSantis, and when he brought up how Democrats do not support abortion limits, she lied to his face and played stupid.

Correspondent Dasha Burns pressed DeSantis during an interview about whether he would veto a federal abortion ban if he won the Oval Office next year.”

“I would not allow what a lot of the left wants to do, which is to override pro-life protections throughout the country all the way up really until the moment of birth in some instances, which I think is infanticide,” DeSantis replied.”

“I’ve gotta push back on you on that,” Burns interjected, “because that’s a misrepresentation of what’s happening. I mean, 1.3% of abortions happen at 21 weeks [of pregnancy] or higher.”

“But their view is is that all the way up until that, there should not be any legal protections,” DeSantis fired back.”

“There is no indication of Democrats pushing for that,” Burns countered.”

The network then cut off DeSantis in its news package as he started to reply.”

.@NBCNews exclusive: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to @DashaBurns about abortion bans:

Burns: Would you veto any sort of federal bill that tries to put a nationwide ban in place?
DeSantis: We will be a pro-life President and we will support pro-life policies. pic.twitter.com/3qfWN4OrHm

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 7, 2023

A transcript shared by the DeSantis campaign showed his rebuttal of Burns during the portion that had been cut off: “Well, yes, they are. They’ve done it in California. They’ve done it in other states.”

“I don’t say that that’s the norm in terms of this. But I do think that the left in this country has moved on from a position that said, ‘You know what, we do want to discourage abortion, it’s not something that’s a good thing,’ to now viewing it more as a positive good for society,” the governor went on. “I don’t think most Americans think it’s a positive good for society. It’s obviously a tragic circumstance.”

The campaign also put out a mashup of prominent Democrats such Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) opposing any restrictions on the procedure.”

Add RFK Jr. to the list of Democrats who “does not support legislation banning abortion.” But if Dasha Burns was correct in what she said to DeSantis, that Democrats aren’t pushing for no limits on abortion, then why was her colleague Ali Vitali “surprised” to hear RFK Jr. support some kind of limit on abortion?

Hmmm, maybe Dasha Burns was just lying.

Dems adopted an extreme position of no legal limits on abortion. They openly emphasize it. The press keeps pretending it doesn’t exist.

And the 1.3% they keep citing to diminish late-term abortions? That’s 10-12K babies each year. Similar to total US gun homicides each year.

— AG (@AGHamilton29) August 7, 2023

And the media was more than happy to be complicit in that lie, until RFK Jr. stepped out of line and Ali Vitali was “surprised.” Then his campaign had to drag him back into line, because – well, you know, he’s a DEMOCRAT. There is no more “big tent” on abortion for Democrats – if you’re a Democrat, you are for unlimited abortion. Not even RFK Jr., the thorn in Joe Biden’s side, is allowed to stray off into wrongthink without being yanked back.

Featured image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, cropped and modified, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)