Trump Allies Lie About RBG’s Position on Abortion, Roe

The candidate for the presidency of the Republic of Moldova, Donald Trump, lied so much about abortion that now his allies have started lying about the judge of the US Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

I bet most American voters, regardless who will win the presidency next weekwill feel a measure of relief when the political ads on television and radio and social media and cell phone texts finally stop.

Before we get there, let’s note that anyone who spends millions of dollars a little over a week before a major election, while doing everything possible to hide where the money comes and goes, is not playing fair with you.

Meet “RBG PAC,” a cutting-edge political action committee that has a lot to say about former President Donald Trump and abortion and almost nothing to say about who pays for it all. The committee, registered by a former Trump White House staffer, has reported Friday that it will spend $20 million on digital, mail and text ads.

“RBG” refers to the late US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburga little titan of jurisprudence so iconic that her initials still project much power four years after her death. Using her image and nickname to defend Trump’s successful effort to roll back constitutional protections for abortion rights sparked understandable outrage.

Trump has faced a political backlash this year after pushing to limit access to abortion as president. This anger cuts across party lines, as the majority of American voters—Republicans and Democrats— supports reproductive rights. And it comes as Vice President Kamala Harris is putting abortion access at the center of her presidential campaign while winning over the moderate Republicans who reject Trump.

Trump’s allies, with their shadowy invocation of RBG, could further fuel these negative repercussions in the days leading up to Tuesday’s election. They came. Ask Ginsburg’s granddaughter.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg disagreed with Trump. Ask her granddaughter.

Clara Spera, Maternal niece of RBGis senior counsel at the National Women’s Law Center, where she helps direct Abortion Access Legal Defense Fund. She is also a lecturer at Harvard Law School.

She helped debunk the main point of RBG PAC’s disingenuous argument – that somehow her grandmother would agree with Trump appointing the three conservative Supreme Court justices. which, in 2022, overturned Roe vs. Wade and the constitutional protections it has provided for nearly half a century.

Ginsburg, Spera told me, had long thought Roe would have been more determined to use 14th Amendment to the Constitution Equal Protection Clause. But the Supreme Court in 1973 ruled instead using that amendment’s implicit right to privacy.

Spera told me that her grandmother “always unequivocally defended Roe” after that ruling and shared no common ground with Trump on abortion. She said RBG PAC is trying to “confuse voters” with a “misleading and completely fabricated connection” between her grandmother’s judicial bent and Trump’s anti-abortion legacy.

That was clear from his time Ginsburg’s 1993 confirmation hearing in the US Senate, where she had this to say about government meddling in a decision about whether to have a child.

“When the government controls that decision for hershe is treated as a less-than-adult responsible for her own choices,” the Supreme Court nominee said at the time.

No one at RBG PAC dared to speak to Spera or her family before spending millions of dollars using her grandmother’s name and photo. I asked what Spera would say to the commission.

“I think the main message would be: stop,” she told me. “Stop this false equivalency. I think the reason I’m doing this is because I know that Donald Trump’s platform on abortion and women’s rights in general is so abysmal.”

RBG PAC did not want to answer for their dishonesty

No one at RBG PAC wanted to talk to me either, it seems, after I called and emailed to seek an answer to what Spera told me. The committee was registered by May Mailman, a lawyer who worked on Trump’s White House staff and took over earlier this year as director of the Independent Law Center for Women.

Her group’s mission: “Protect single-sex spaces” and “advocate for the continued legal relevance of biological sex.” Translation: Making the already complicated lives of trans people oh so much more complicated.

Mailman signed on as treasurer of RBG PAC when he was registered on 16 Oct with the Federal Electoral Commission. Its only other files came nine days laterwhen it reported spending $76,000 on digital media production, $17.3 million on digital media ads, $1 million on print and mail, and $1.6 million on text messaging.

The timing of this filing means RPG PAC won’t have to disclose where that money came from until after the election. It’s a common tactic for people in politics who want to influence your vote without revealing who they are.

We know that all of this money went to Western Creative Group, LLC, a corporation registered in Wyoming in April who has zero work record in federal elections.

That company, registered by a law firm, lists no owners or directors and cites a private PO Box at a mailing and marking firm as his address.

Again, the secret here is the crux. They want to mislead you about RBG to support Trump before they are forced to reveal who they are after the election.

Just to clarify, RBG disagreed with Trump on abortion

I found a dozen RBG PAC digital ads on Facebook that began airing Sunday, including two videos of women saying Trump opposes the national abortion ban and that’s why they support it. Those ads don’t directly reference the late Supreme Court justice, but use her initials when saying who paid for the ads.

The committee prominently displays Ginsburg’s photo on his website and social media platforms while asking this question: “Why did Ruth Bader Ginsburg agree with Donald Trump’s stance on abortion?” This is a tricky question – she didn’t.

Trump said this month, he would have rejected a national abortion ban if he won re-election and Congress tried to pass one. But it was all over the map on this issue. He called in 2016 for women to be punished for abortion before going back to that as well.

Trump, who now lives in Florida, signaled in August that he would support a ballot measure in that state that would expand abortion rights. but then voted against it.

In other words, he has no credibility when it comes to his position on abortion. And RBG PAC’s zero-credibility move to help the GOP presidential nominee should instead outrage any voter—Republican, Democrat, or independent—being lied to about Donald Trump on behalf of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Follow USA TODAY election columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan