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Trump says Virginia Governor Ralph Northam wants to kill babies after birth, report dubs charge 'distortion'

The president has been targeting the Democrat for some time now and went on a Twitter rant as early voting started in the Old Dominion State

President Donald Trump often picks up a fight against Democratic governors — be it over coronavirus pandemic response or holding elections. His current opponent is Virginia Governor Ralph Northam who he accused on Twitter last Friday, September 18, to be a baby killer and retweeted the same two days later saying "Vote!" before he headed to his golf course in the state.

The maverick commander-in-chief launched his attack on Northam, 61, as early in-person polling started in the Old Dominion on Friday with images of long queues surfacing on social media. Trump soon tweeted: "Voting starts in Virginia TODAY, and we are going to WIN. You have a crazy Governor who wants to take away your guns, which he will do without me in office. He is in favor of executing babies after birth - this isn’t late-term abortion, this is a step way beyond!”

In another tweet that followed, Trump said: “...I’m playing for your guns, and I’m playing for your values. For all the Federal Employees in Virginia, remember, it was me that got you the Federal Pay Raises, not Sleepy Joe Biden. I’ll be having a Big Rally in Virginia, to be announced soon!” He retweeted that too on Sunday saying: "Vote!"

Virginia, which has sent the most number (eight) of presidents to the White House, has not seen a Republican presidential candidate winning it after 2004. Trump lost to Hillary Clinton by over five points in the state in 2016 and if the pre-poll surveys ahead of this year’s election are to be believed, he is trailing his Democratic opponent Joe Biden. As per a RealClearPolitics polling index in Virginia, the former vice-president is leading the incumbent by 14 points.

Trump, Northam targeting each other for months now

Trump and Northam have been at loggerheads for some months now. In April, the former gave a call for "liberating" Virginia and saving the Second Amendment. Northam responded on the occasion saying it was not a time to divide the people of the nation. In May, the Democrat also asked the president not to take hydroxychloroquine, something the latter claimed he had been doing in a bid to keep the virus away. The malaria drug has not been scientifically confirmed to be a remedy for the deadly transmission.

Coming back to Trump’s serious accusations against Northam that he wanted to execute babies, the Associated Press made a fact check to say it was a “gross distortion” of what the governor actually said on late-term abortion. Last year, Northam made confusing remarks in an interview saying if a woman wanted a baby while going into labor, it could be “resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue”. Northam, a pediatric neurologist himself, perhaps was referring to “palliative care” where a newborn, which is expected to not survive because of abnormalities, is denied medical intervention.

Accusation against Northam 'gross distortion': says fact-checker

The AP fact-checking report said: “This a gross distortion of Democratic Gov Ralph Northam’s position on late-term abortion. Northam brought trouble on himself with ambiguous comments on the subject but he has certainly not called for executing babies, which is a crime. It is not necessarily a crime to forgo sophisticated medical intervention in cases where severe fetal abnormalities leave a newborn with no chance of survival. This has happened on rare occasions in the course of a late-term abortion. The US government recorded 143 deaths between 2003 and 2014 involving infants born alive during attempted abortions.

This is the subject Northam addressed more than a year ago in a radio interview when he expressed support for state legislation that would allow late-term abortions. He said if a woman were to want an abortion as she’s going into labor, the baby would be delivered and 'resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue' between doctors and the mother. He did not elaborate on the circumstances or what the discussion would be.”

Trump was perhaps also encouraged by the fact that people were lining up to cast their ballots since he has been highly critical of the idea of mail-in ballot, something his opponents have vowed for in the times of the pandemic that has claimed almost 200,000 lives. Responding to a tweet posted by Fox News contributor Sara A Carter who backed Trump’s opposition to mail-on ballots, the president said: “A giant SCAM, and the Dems know it!”

Also on Sunday, Trump addressed Virginia in relation to the Second Amendment to tweet: “VIRGINIA, and everywhere else for that matter, I am the only thing standing between you and your 2nd Amendment. If I am re-elected, it is 100% SAFE. If not, it is GONE!”