Pro-Life Congressman Who Pressured Mistress into Getting Abortion Endorses Trump
Notoriously hypocritical anti-abortion Congressman Scott DesJarlais, Republican from Tennessee (which is a Super Tuesday state), has endorsed Donald Trump, the Guardian reports. DesJarlais’s ex-wife and his mistress have undergone abortions either at his behest or as the result of a “mutual decision.”
According to his own website, the congressman “believes that all life should be cherished and protected.” Last year, DesJarlais voted in favor of a federal 20-week abortion ban. And in a statement Monday, DesJarlais said,
While there are certainly things that I admire and respect in each of the remaining candidates, I believe Donald Trump is the candidate best poised to make America great again. As such, I was proud to cast my vote for Mr. Trump.
Before he was a politician, DesJarlais was a doctor, and he met the woman who would become his mistress when she was a patient. In 2012, the Huffington Post obtained transcripts of a 2000 phone call between the two in which DesJarlais entreats her to get an abortion. “You told me you’d have an abortion, and now we’re getting too far along without one,” DesJarlais says. “You told me you would have time to go with me and everything,” the woman replies.
“I said, if I could, I would, didn’t I? And I will try,” he says, “If I can [find] time, you’re saying you still will?” She acquiesces.
Later, transcripts of DesJarlais’ testimony during divorce proceedings were also released, revealing that he and his wife had mutually agreed that she would get an abortion on two separate occasions. DesJarlais called the decision “a very difficult and poor choice.”
Of course, Trump is an abortion hypocrite as well: Earlier this month, he wrote on Facebook, “I am pro-life.” In 1999, he declared himself “very pro-choice.”
Asked in an early debate to explain the discrepancy, he said, “I hate the concept of abortion. And then since then, I’ve very much evolved. And what happened is friends of mine years ago were going to have a child, and it was going to be aborted. And it wasn’t aborted. And that child today is a total superstar, a great, great child. And I saw that. And I saw other instances. And I am very, very proud to say that I am pro-life.”
