What did the full statement say?
I don’t know. Trump until recently was very liberal on everything including abortion. I would guess, and don’t know, that the comment would have shown this. But Trump and his supporters are sick and tired of getting bogged down in the fact that a couple of years ago Trump was a flaming liberal. They prefer the idea that he’s always been one of us.
From 1999:
RUSSERT: Partial-birth abortion — the eliminating of abortion in the third trimester. Big issue in Washington. Would President Trump ban partial-birth abortion?
TRUMP: Well, look. I’m very pro-choice. I hate the concept of abortion. I hate it, I hate everything it stands for. I cringe when I hear people debating the subject. But you still — I just believe in choice. And again, it may be a little bit of a New York background, because there is some different attitude in different parts of the country, and I was raised in New York, grew up and worked and everything else in New York City. But I am strongly for choice, and yet I hate the concept of abortion.
RUSSERT: But you would not ban it.
TRUMP: No.
RUSSERT: Or ban partial-birth abortion.
TRUMP: No, I would — I would — I am pro-choice in every respect, as far as it goes. I just hate it.