House Republican Conference Chairwoman Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., slammed Democrats’ ‘scare tactics’ regarding former President Trump’s stance on women in terms of abortion and IVF access on Sunday.
At a recent campaign stop in Wisconsin, Vice President Harris claimed that Trump would ‘ban abortion nationwide,’ ‘restrict access to birth control, put IVF treatments at risk and force states to – get this – monitor women’s pregnancies.’ Democrats have run ads across the country on the issue.
Trump has repeatedly stated he would not sign a national abortion ban, and Stefanik, in an appearance on ‘Fox News Sunday,’ reiterated how Trump ‘believes this issue should be decided at the states’ and supports three exceptions for abortions in circumstances of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother.
‘When it comes to IVF, that is a false smear,’ Stefanik told ‘Fox News Sunday’ host Shannon Bream. ‘President Trump wants to expand access to IVF, make birth control available, and the reason why Democrats are only talking about this issue is these are scare tactics because they are losing on every other issue. Whether it’s the economy, the border, safety and security around the world, we’re going to run and win, and I think that women when they look at the key top issues, they are increasingly looking at their lives were much better under President Trump versus the crises that we’ve seen under Kamala Harris today.’
Stefanik also slammed Harris for failing to condemn Mark Cuban’s recent remarks about female Trump supporters. Cuban faced backlash for suggesting on ‘The View’ last Thursday that Trump neglects to surround himself with ‘strong, intelligent women,’ claiming that they intimidate and challenge him.
Stefanik pointed to how she, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump have been traveling across the country as surrogates of the Trump campaign. Stefanik also noted that under Trump’s administration, the U.S. had ‘the highest number of women ever in the workforce, the largest wage and salary increase for working women ever,’ and ‘child care was affordable.’
The congresswoman also highlighted how inflation drove up grocery, energy and utility costs, impacting women, as well as the safety issues for women arising from the lack of border security.
‘Kamala Harris did not condemn Mark Cuban’s just disgraceful comments saying that President Trump does not surround himself with strong, intelligent women,’ Stefanik said. ‘Whether you compare it to the first lady, his daughter Ivanka Trump or so many senior level women that are working in support of his campaign.’
Asked if she would accept Cuban’s apology issued after the backlash, Stefanik responded by noting how Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, described Trump supporters as ‘deplorables’ in 2016, ‘then they called us Nazis, then Mark Cuban said there are no strong or intelligent women around President Trump, and just yesterday you had Kathy Hochul smearing voters who support Republicans as ‘anti-American.”
‘President Trump is running to unify this country on the goals of securing the border, strengthening the economy,’ she said. ‘So Kamala Harris should condemn that, and they didn’t, the campaign failed to do that, and that’s offensive to so many women across this country, not just elected official women. Gold Star moms, Gold Star wives, women veterans who are proudly supporting President Trump.’
Stefanik later discussed Election Day predictions for Congress. She deemed New York the ‘epicenter’ of the House majority, as several first-term Republican incumbents face competitive challenges from Democrats in the deep blue state.
‘President Trump on the ballot is a net gain to every Republican candidate for Senate and House,’ Stefanik said. ‘I’m from New York, obviously, New York is the epicenter for the race for the House Republican majority, Republicans, when it comes to early voting, increased by 50% compared to where we were in 2022, and that was cycle where of course we flipped those five House seats.’
‘Kamala Harris is underperforming Joe Biden in every single swing district across the country if you look at Joe Biden’s performance in 2020,’ she said. ‘I think on a good night we can win up to 10 seats, Shannon, which would be a sizable Republican majority. We’re not taking anything for granted, but the issues are on our side.… On every top issue, Republicans are winning. President Trump is winning, and I think we could be in for some surprises on Election Day that House Republicans will overperform the predictions.’