At the request of the former president donald trump and its allies, the Republican Party is expected to abandon a decades-long push for a federal abortion ban and soften its stance on same-sex marriage in its country. platformaccording to changes made to a draft policy platform approved Monday morning ahead of next week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
The new draft party platform, which has yet to win approval from the entire Republican National Committee, came after the Trump campaign made a quiet effort to keep those seen as too socially conservative off the platform committee out of fear that they would make a vocal push for things like a federal abortion ban, which has been consistently unpopular in public polls.
“The reality of the situation is that this platform reflects modern reality,” said a platform committee member who spoke anonymously to NBC News to detail the private deliberations. “This is a position that leaves it up to the states, which is the position of the Republican Party.”
The fights are over how to deal Changes in both abortion and same-sex marriage dominated the period leading up to the Republican Party’s national political platform change, something that typically happens every four years along with presidential elections. For the first time in recent memory, this year’s platform meeting was held behind closed doors, with no media or public access.
Social conservatives pushed to keep the platform’s old language, promoting a ban on abortion and opposing same-sex marriage, but lost as the politics around both changed over the years. Trump said earlier this year that abortion should remain an issue of state policy, following the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. Wade, and the Trump White House said during his administration that he supported same-sex marriage.
“It’s fair to say that more than 1,000 pastors have emailed, texted and called me about their disappointment about where they saw the platform going,” said Chad Connelly, former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, who said having been blocked in the platform committee. about “being labeled ‘too pro-life’.”
“The words I hear are shock, betrayal, trampling, depression, disinflation,” he said. “Most pastors I know don’t want to Biden and they will probably still vote for Trump, but that undermines the energy needed for these people to do what is necessary to help elect a president.”
In a statement, Trump’s top advisers said the platform represents his vision for the Republican Party heading into the 2024 election cycle.
“President Trump’s 2024 Republican Party platform articulates his vision for Making America Great Again in a way that is concise and digestible for all voters,” Trump campaign senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said in an announcement.
Biden’s campaign said the Republican Party’s preliminary platform hid Trump’s true policy goals.
“Every voter should Google Project 2025 if they want to know Donald Trump’s true agenda for America,” Biden campaign spokesman James Singer said in a statement. “What was released today was not a platform, it was a cheap, all-caps admission that Trump and his campaign want to hide from their dangerous Project 2025 agenda to make Trump a dictator on day one, destroy our system of checks and balances. , cut Social Security, ban abortion and worse.”
The approval of Trump’s proposed party platform comes just two days after he publicly attacked the conservative groups behind the drafting of Project 2025, a 922-page policy roadmap for a potential second Trump administration. Critics have criticized some of the bill’s proposals, and Biden’s campaign has repeatedly sought to link Trump to it.
“I don’t know anything about Project 2025,” Trump wrote in a social media post. “I have no idea who is behind this. I disagree with some of the things they are saying and some of the things they are saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Whatever they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”
The Republican National Committee’s platform policy director, Russ Vought, was also one of the authors of Project 2025, which was led by the Heritage Foundation and supported by more than 100 other allied organizations.
A day after Trump’s social media post, Project 2025 director Paul Dans canceled a recorded interview with NBC News that was scheduled for Monday.
Inside the platform changes
The Republican Party’s current policy platform, unchanged since 2016 after the party ignored the platform process during the pandemic in 2020, says the Republican Party supports a “human life amendment” to the U.S. Constitution. The amendments proposed this year say that the 14th Amendment inherently offers protections for life at conception and that “states are therefore free to pass laws that protect those rights.”
It represents a significant shift for the Republican Party, which has struggled with how to handle its stance on abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Wade, pitting social conservatives against figures more concerned with the political implications of the party’s position.
“It is unfortunate that the statement on abortion and pro-life issues is very weak and much less effective in articulating a solid political agenda around the issues,” said John Stemberger, president of Liberty Counsel Action, a conservative action group. .
Stemberger praised new sections added to the Republican Party’s policy platform that offer protections for parental rights in education and have officially placed the party in opposition to “gender indoctrination of our children.”
On same-sex marriage, the Trump-aligned platform committee also approved changes opposed by social conservatives in the party. The proposed new platform eliminates language that says marriage is “between a man and a woman and is the basis for a free society.”
It was replaced with language that says the party promotes a “culture that values the sanctity of marriage, the blessing of childhood, the fundamental role of the family, and supports working parents.” The proposed new platform does not include mention of “one man and one woman.”
Although there was a feverish lobbying effort before the platform committee meeting, the issue was not a topic of debate during Monday’s meeting, which focused more on abortion language.
“I don’t think one person brought it up,” a second platform committee member told NBC News.
One issue that drew some attention during the roughly three-hour meeting was the potential use of military forces on the southern border, something some platform committee members said could raise legal questions. Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., a former Green Beret, quickly dismissed the concerns.
Other additions to the party platform include the initiation of the “largest deportation program in American history,” an effort to use federal law to keep “foreign communists, Marxists, and socialists who hate Christians out of America,” and an effort to “keep men out of women’s sport.”
The draft platform also says Republicans will “hold accountable” those who have used the government “to unfairly prosecute their political opponents.”
“We will declassify government records, root out evildoers, and fire corrupt officials,” the platform says, a reference to the baseless notion that President Joe Biden and Democrats have unfairly prosecuted Republicans for political reasons.
The proposed platform is just 16 pages long, significantly shorter than the current 60+ page document. This was the result of a concerted effort by Trump to simplify and streamline the party’s policy platform.
“For decades, Republicans have published textbook-sized platforms that are scrutinized and intentionally misrepresented by our political opponents,” Wiles and LaCivita wrote in a memo late last month, which was first reported by The New York Times. “The mainstream media uses its bully pulpit to perpetuate lies and misrepresentations, and voters are often left believing that we stand for something other than what we actually stand for.”
It’s something some party officials said was the right move after years of massive GOP platforms.
“It’s what a platform should be, in my opinion,” said a party representative. “What DJT is running, but not hundreds of pages of dribbling.”
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
