CHICAGO – President Joe Biden lashed out at Donald Trump’s announcement Monday that abortion should be left to the states and warned of the consequences if Trump wins in November.
“No one trusts Donald Trump,” Biden said, noting how the former president struck a “political deal” with the anti-abortion right.
The president went on to say that his predecessor’s lack of support for a national ban was wishful thinking. “If they put one on his desk, he said he would sign it.”
Biden made his comments during a high-profile fundraising event in Chicago attended by about 50 friends and donors, including Bill Daley, President Barack Obama’s former chief of staff.
Biden’s campaign was ready to confront Trump on abortion shortly after he posted his ad on his social media platform Monday morning. Democrats have been warning for months that abortion will be central to the general election, and the former president’s announcement gave them a new reason to talk about the issue.
“Trump is in trouble and he knows it. Just today he released a video in which he fights for the issue of abortion,” Biden said during the event in Chicago. “He is concerned that voters will hold him responsible for repealing Roe v. Wadeand for the cruelty and chaos he has created…Voters will hold him accountable for the extreme six-week bans.”
Earlier in the day, the Biden campaign also released a new digital ad highlighting a Texas woman who suffered a miscarriage and nearly died after doctors in the state refused to perform an abortion.
“Trump did this,” the campaign said in a post on Biden’s account.
The campaign also hosted a press call that same day with Kaitlyn Kash, another Texas woman who was forced to leave the state to have an abortion after learning that her baby had a serious condition and was unlikely to survive birth.
The Chicago fundraiser was co-hosted by asset manager Michael Sacks and Chicago Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts, along with their spouses.
Both are big donors to Democrats, and Sacks heads the host committee for the Democratic National Convention, which will also be held in Chicago. The event was expected to raise $2.5 million for the Biden Action Fund, which fuels Biden’s campaign for President and the Democratic National Committee.
Guests also included media executive and Democratic donor Fred Eychaner along with MK Pritzker, wife of Governor JB Pritzker, who could not attend because she was in southern Illinois to view the eclipse.
Guests were seated in an art-filled room in the Sacks skyscraper, just off Michigan Avenue, as demonstrators outside protested the war between Israel and Hamas, although their voices could not be heard from inside.
Biden landed in Chicago just after the eclipse and after speaking in Wisconsin about a new plan he announced to help people eliminate student debt.
Across the country, Democrats moved quickly to seize the opportunity Trump provided in a nearly four-and-a-half-minute video in which the former president took credit for eviscerating Roeand argued that individual states should determine when and how harshly to restrict abortion access.
Before the announcement, Trump had been under intense pressure to take a clear position after playing for weeks with backing a blanket 15-week ban. The former president privately worries that the issue is politically toxic for Republicans, especially if they do not support exemptions for the mother’s life and health.
Biden, despite showing some discomfort talking about abortion in the past, has repeatedly promised to restore Roe v. Wade with legislation if given the opportunity. She has cast the election as an existential moment for women’s reproductive freedoms. That stance has also offered a stark contrast to Trump and Republicans, who have struggled for nearly two years to find a sustainable consensus on their position following the Supreme Court’s decision. dobbs decision.
Adam Cancryn and Elena Schneider contributed to this report.
CORRECTION: The original article incorrectly stated Sacks’ profession.