Biden says voters will hold Donald Trump ‘accountable’ for changing nation’s abortion laws

President Joe Biden at the Dale Mabry campus of Hillsborough Community College in Tampa on April 23, 2024. (Photo credit: Mitch Perry)

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President Joe Biden came to Tampa on Tuesday to speak about abortion rights, eight days before the state of Florida will enact a rigid ban on most abortions in the state after six weeks of pregnancy — though his main topic was former President Donald Trump.

“Let’s be real clear, there’s one person responsible for this nightmare, and he acknowledges and brags about it — Donald Trump,” Biden said to boos from the crowd who gathered in a gymnasium on the Dale Mabry campus of Hillsborough Community College. “Well, now Trump says the law is ‘working the way that it’s supposed to.'”

Biden continued the verbal assault on the former president and mocked Trump during one part of his speech.

“He described the Dobbs decision as a miracle,” Biden said of Trump. “Maybe it comes from that Bible he’s trying to sell.”

In fact, “Next week one of the nation’s most extreme anti-abortion law is going to take effect here in Florida,” Biden said. “It criminalizes reproductive healthcare before a woman even knows that they are pregnant,” he added, saying it will impact millions of women in the state.

Biden then discussed the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs decision which overturned the 1973 ruling legalizing a women’s federal right to abortion, and directly placed the blame for that major policy change to Trump, his likely opponent in a rematch of the 2020 election this November.

Biden mentioned that abortion rights measures have been successful in both blue and red states across the country the past two years since Roe was overturned, and he predicted that Florida will do the same when it votes on its abortion rights measure this fall.

“This November, you can add Florida to that list,” Biden said to loud cheers. “Are you ready to do that? You’ve gotta show up to vote.”

“Don’t mess with the women of America!” Biden then declared to the loudest cheers of the afternoon.

He repeatedly said in his brief speech (it lasted about 13 minutes) that the voters will hold Trump accountable for the U.S. Supreme Court justices who overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade court case.

Biden also promised that if he was re-elected, he and Vice President Kamala Harris would make Roe v. Wade “the law of the land again.” However, such a law would need to get 60 votes in the U.S. Senate.

The president’s visit to Florida is the first time he has come to the Sunshine State — formerly a swing state — this year, but the state has moved into red territory in recent years. Biden lost to Trump by 3.3 percentage points in 2020, and recent polls show the gap has increased between the two presumptive major party nominees this year.

Trump leads Biden by 8 percentage points, according to a Florida Atlantic University Political Communication and Public Opinion Research Lab survey released last week. Trump leads Biden by 11 points in an Emerson College Polling survey released on April 11, and Trump leads Biden by 6 percentage points in an WMNF/St. Pete Polls survey released last month.

Former Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn (photo credit: Mitch Perry)

Former Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, a Democrat, says he believes that the issue of reproductive rights is so important that he believes some Republican voters would cross over and vote for Democratic candidates in November in Florida.

“I think an attack on women’s rights by a presidential candidate will move significant numbers of women to the Democratic column,” he says. “That may be a one-time occurrence, but I think that in this particular case, what they have done is so egregious and so offensive to many women, that it’s enough to move them in this election, at this time, to vote for Joe Biden.”

Florida Republicans disagree.

“Floridians top issues are immigration, the economy and inflation, in all three areas Joe Biden has failed,” said Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power. “Instead of coming to talk to Floridians about manufactured issues, he should get to work solving the real issues that he has failed to lead on. We also welcome him to learn from the successes that has made Florida a beacon of freedom for the rest of the country.” 

“Any day that Joe Biden visits Florida is a great day for Florida Republicans,” said U.S. GOP Sen. Rick Scott in a statement. “Floridians are abandoning Joe Biden and the Democrats in droves because their disastrous policies are destroying our country.” 

Both Republicans noted the considerable lead that the GOP has over Democrats in registered voters, which now is at more than 892,000 as of March 31, according to Florida Division of Elections records.

Biden took one shot at Scott in the speech, noting how former Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is likely to face Scott in November.

“Debbie’s running against Rick Scott,” Biden said. “He wants to sunset Social Security. I think the voters are going to sunset Rick Scott.”

Retired University of South Florida political science professor Susan MacManus says what Florida Democrats really need from the national Democratic Party and its associated political action committees is money to support down-the-ballot candidates.

“Florida Democrats have made it clear that they need money, and part of the reason that they say they lost so badly in 2022 was that the money from the national Democratic deep pockets and coffers dried up and they weren’t able to do any kind of grassroots work,” she told the Phoenix on Monday.

“What I’ve been saying is the winnable needs to include money to help Dems get back on their feet by winning some state legislative and congressional races, and him coming here is step number one to proving that it’s winnable, if he’s going to take his time and come here, but step two is follow up which is okay, we’re going to get some money into Florida and try to help the party because short of that, it’s just words,” MacManus added.

Meanwhile Tuesday, there were organized protests regarding the president’s policies regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict, but they were positioned well outside of the footprint where Biden was speaking.

According to a press pool report, on the way from the airport to the campus, there were people holding signs saying “Kennedy 2024” and another group holding a pro-Trump sign and one that said, “Biden Bad.”

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