Matt Walsh admits that conservative positions on abortion, immigration, and gun violence are extremist: “It's not where most people are”
Matt Walsh admitted right-wing positions are out of step with the American people while condemning Kari Lake's “reprehensible, disgusting” and “politically suicidal” flip-flop on abortion
Published
As many people have pointed out, Lake is now trying to distance herself from the draconian Arizona abortion law she supported in 2022.
Citation From the April 12, 2024, edition of The Daily Wire's The Matt Walsh Show
MATT WALSH (HOST): First of all, you know, there there are some conservatives that are defending what you just watched there. If she did the same thing on immigration or gun control, you know, I don't think those conservatives would be defending her. And guess what? The most right-wing, most conservative position on those topics is also not the mainstream. It's not where most people are. So, now — most Americans want immigration laws to be enforced. Most Americans want — don't want illegal immigrants taking our jobs. Most Americans want, you know, basically want gun rights. But if you're truly conservative on these issues, you most likely take that farther. I know I certainly do. You take that principle farther than the mainstream does. That's why we differ -- that's why it's the mainstream. And I think that if Kari Lake had, say, looked at the polls and then put out this little squishy video with the music in the background and the piano music and explaining why her — she's moderated her positions on any other topic, I don't think it would be found acceptable by almost any conservative. And yet this is supposed to be acceptable on abortion? It's not.
So here's the problem. Number one, this is just wrong. It's just — it's wrong. It's — you know, if you care about that sort of thing, it is morally wrong. It's wrong on principle to come out and in support of, well, women have to make — sometimes you have to make the choice to kill your baby. It's just a choice has to be made. It's a personal, it's a very personal difficult choice to kill the baby, and sometimes you have to do that. It's actually a reprehensible, disgusting view. And also it is politically suicidal. It is not going to work. So even if you don't care about the morality of it, even if you scoff at that, and you say, oh, yeah, you Matt's just being a purist. He's trying to be one of those true conservative types. Fine. Then let's talk about the politics of it. Politically, it's a dumb strategy. It's all — it is the strategy the Republican establishment has been using for decades. It is not new. This is what — this is no different from what John McCain would do or Mitt Romney or any of the Bushes. OK? Jeb, George, any of the Georges. It's the same thing. It's the exact same strategy, exact same position. Was it a brilliant politically — political strategy when they did it? Has it been a path to conservative dominance in government at any point in the last 30, 40 years, huh? No. This has always been the establishment Republican view that the only way you win is by moderating your views, by adopt — by looking at where the left is on a topic and coming as close as you can to them while still pretending to be conservative. By getting as far away as you can from the right-wing on every topic — that has been the Republican establishment strategy forever. And it has not worked.
So what do you achieve here? What does Kari Lake achieve with this video? Where she is, again, condemning a state ban on abortion. So this is not — you cannot hide behind state's rights. The — Arizona has the right, the state right to pass this law. She's saying she doesn't want the law. It's a pro-life law she doesn't want. And the law even carves out cases where the life of the mother is jeopardized, even though you never really need abortion to save the life of the mother, it's not real. But, OK, if it was real, it's that's — you know, that has been carved out. That's an exception that's granted. She still doesn't like it. And instead, we get this ridiculous video. Everything she's saying here, this is Clinton-era Democrat talking points. This is Republican establishment talking points, which means that it is Clinton era, mid-nineties Democrat talking points on abortion. Safe, legal, and rare is what she's talking about. She might as well have just said that directly because that was the mantra of the pro-abortion movement for years and years and that's what she's saying now.