Donald Trump's abortion views took another baffling turn when the presumptive GOP presidential nominee refuted his controversial assertion in March that women who have abortions
should be punished by declaring his response, nevertheless, was praised as an "unbelievable academic answer."
In a telephone interview with MSNBC on Wednesday, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee repeated he no longer stood by his initial reply to Chris Matthews' question.
The new interview was posted Wednesday by
the Daily Caller.
"No, he was asking me a theoretical, or just a question in theory," Trump tells MSNBC. "And I talked about it only from that standpoint. Of course not."
"And that was done, he said, you know, I guess it was theoretically, but he was asking me a rhetorical question, and I, and I gave an answer," Trump continued.
"And by the way, people thought from an academic standpoint, and, asked rhetorically, people said that answer was an unbelievable academic answer," he declared. "But of course not, and I said that afterwards."
Following his exchange with Matthews, Trump released a "clarifying" statement saying only doctors who perform the abortion should be punished, and that the woman is a victim and shouldn't be punished if abortion is outlawed.
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