Trump's wild claims as he says Roe v Wade let women 'kill babies after birth'
Joe Biden and Donald Trump both headed to the border between the US and Mexico in Texas on Thursday in a sign of how central immigration has become to the 2024 election and how much each presidential hopeful wants to use it to his advantage.
The US president, who wants to spotlight how Republicans tanked a bipartisan border security deal on Trump's orders, headed to the Rio Grande Valley city of Brownsville. For nine years, this was the busiest corridor for illegal crossings, but they have dropped sharply in recent months.
The president walked a quiet stretch of the border along the Rio Grande, and received a lengthy operations briefing from Homeland Security agents who talked to him bluntly about what more they needed. "I want the American people to know what we're trying to get done," he said to officials there. "We can't afford not to do this."
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The motorcade carrying Trump at the US-Mexico border (AP)Trump, who wants to continue his attacks on Biden and dial up his anti-migrant rhetoric, headed to Eagle Pass, roughly 325 miles northwest of Brownsville, in the corridor that is currently seeing the largest number of crossings. "The United States of America is being invaded," he said, adding: "This is like a war." Here, we look at the wildest claims Trump made during his visit.
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Roe v. Wade allowed women 'to kill the baby after birth'
During an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, Trump also made a wild and false claim about Roe v. Wade, saying it had allowed women "to kill the baby after birth". He claimed: "I think it's a very important thing the exceptions. I also think that they are the radicals, because they will kill the baby in eight months, nine months. Under Roe v. Wade, they had the right to kill the baby after birth. I mean, literally, after birth in some cases."
"That was the governor of Virginia at the time," replied Hannity, in reference to the controversial remarks former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam made in support of late-term abortions. Governor Northam said such abortions would be carried out "in cases where there may be severe deformities", explaining that if the child would need to be placed on life support after birth, they would be kept "comfortable" and resuscitated if the family wanted.
Trump claimed that Mexicans loved him (Getty Images)In 2019, Governor Northam received backlash over comments he made supporting a failed Virginia bill that would have allowed abortions up to childbirth. He said: "The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother."
The following year, Trump falsely accused Governor Northam of having personally executed a baby and in a rant about Joe Biden, he claimed: "He endorsed a governor of Virginia who not only executed a baby, late-term abortion, but executed a baby because the baby can be born and then you can kill the baby."
15-week abortion ban but Trump 'on women's side'
Trump, who is now seeking a second term as president, said he hasn't decided on a set number of weeks after which abortion should be banned - but he mentioned he was "hearing about 15 weeks". He said: "The number 15 is mentioned. I haven't agreed to any number. I'm going to see. We want to take an issue that was very polarising and get it settled and solved so everybody can be happy."
He also said he was responsible for terminating Roe v. Wade through his appointment of three conservative Supreme Court justices. He also called an Alabama court ruling that frozen embryos are people, which cast uncertainty on access to in vitro fertilisation (IVF), "very harsh".
He said Alabama Republican Senator Katie Britt reached out to him on the issue saying people were "almost attacking her" as they were "so upset" about the issue. He voiced his support for protecting IVF and claimed to be "on the side of women."
Trump said, about his exchange with Ms Britt: "I said what's the issue, what is it, explain. And we're talking about the IVF, and I said, 'We want that. We want people to help. We're on the side of women.'"
People in Mexico 'like Trump'
During the visit to Eagle Pass, Texas, the former US president was seen waving at people across the border while standing at a barbed-wire fence next to Texas Governor Greg Abbot. After gesturing to people on the other side of Rio Grande, Trump turned to a camera crew behind him and said: "They like Trump. Can you believe it?"
"They like the governor," he added, patting Governor Abbott on the back. The video was shared on social media by Alex Lorusso, executive producer of the Conservative podcast "The Benny Show".
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Anti-migrant message
Trump also reiterated an anti-migrant message that is central to his 2024 reelection campaign as he said: "This is a Joe Biden invasion. This is a Biden invasion over the past three years."
He did not announce any immigration policies but spent time talking about the recent killing of Georgia college student Laken Riley after police charged a Venezuelan man who allegedly entered the US illegally in 2022. Trump said he talked to Ms Riley's family ahead of his visit and suggested Biden was to blame for crimes committed by migrants, saying the president has "the blood of countless innocent victims."
Trump is making his anti-migrant policy a key point of his reelection campaign (AFP via Getty Images)"I spoke to the parents of an incredible young lady and ... [they] were devastated. They're incredible people," Trump said, referring to Ms Riley, whom he said was "beautiful in so many ways and brutally assaulted." "We're not going to forget her," he said. "It's been just a horrible story."
'Migrant crime'
He also continued accusing migrants of committing crimes, providing statistics without any sources, and ignoring the bigger context that US citizens commit crimes at higher rates than unauthorised immigrants, according to a 2020 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He also made disparaging comments about migrants who speak different languages.
He said: "They're truly foreign languages. Nobody speaks them. And they're pouring into our country and they're bringing with them tremendous problems."
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