Michael Knowles explores conservative strategies for victory in 2024 without compromising values, touching on abortion and Trump

Daily Wire host Michael Knowles spoke at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for a Young America’s Foundation event Tuesday night, where he addressed the ongoing debate surrounding abortion.

Following former President Donald Trump’s long-awaited statement on abortion policy and the decision by the Arizona Supreme Court to allow a law to take effect that protects unborn babies from abortion in nearly all cases, Republicans have fought over how to address the hot-button issue in the midst of a major election cycle.

Knowles, who said he is “as pro-life as they come,” added that there is a “fair concern” among some Republicans that taking a strong pro-life stance during the 2024 election campaign will hand victories in the House, Senate, and presidency to Democrats. This concern appears to be shared by Trump, who said he wants laws on abortion to be decided by the states.

“Some pro-lifers have criticized President Trump for this stance. They wish, in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s reversal, that he would go further,” Knowles said. “They wish that he would come out in support of a national abortion ban—or even an additional Court ruling that would ban abortion on the basis of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Some have gone so far as to say that President Trump is not a pro-life candidate.”

“This, I think, is unfair. Deeply unfair,” the Daily Wire host continued. “Because President Trump is the only reason that we’re even having this discussion at all. President Trump is the reason Roe v. Wade was reversed in the first place. There have been six Republican presidents since Roe v. Wade invented a national license to abortion. Six Republican presidents since the first March for Life in 1974. Trump is the only one to ever to show up. Nixon didn’t show up. Ford didn’t show up. Not even Saint Ronald Reagan or either of Bush showed up. Just Trump.”

While Knowles argued that some of the criticism of Trump for his “prudent” abortion stance is “unfair,” he said that some Republicans have gone too far in their effort to appear more moderate on the issue and have “sacrificed their principles.” He discussed how Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake came out with a statement, calling abortion “such a personal and private issue” and saying that she “want[s] to make sure that every woman who finds herself pregnant has more choices so that she can make that choice that I made.”

The Daily Wire host said he likes Lake “a lot“ and hopes her Senate campaign “corrects course” so she can defeat her Democrat opponent, “who describes the murder of babies as a ‘sacred right.’”

Knowles added that for a conservative to run a politically strategic campaign in 2024, they “should say that they support life, they support babies and mothers, and they respect the Supreme Court precedent established in Dobbs that abortion is a matter for the states rather than the federal government.”

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“Such a stance allows candidates to side-step a thorny issue in a tough election year without sacrificing their principles,” Knowles added.

“Mouthing off and losing elections does not advance the pro-life cause,” Knowles continued. “Likewise, abandoning our principles to win elections does not advance the pro-life cause. Pro-life losers do no more to protect innocent life than pro-abortion candidates do. We have to win. And likewise, conservatives who win by caving on fundamental principles are no better than the liberals. ‘What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?’”