In the penultimate segment of Thursday’s CNN Democratic Debate, Hillary Clinton diverted from the discussion topic about the Supreme Court vacancy to chastise CNN and all of the previous debate hosts for not asking both her and her opponents about the issue of abortion (since it’s an issue that’s such a firm plank of the Democratic Party).
Clinton attempted to provide a clear pivot by informing both the moderators and the audience that she “want[ed] to say something about this since we're talking about the Supreme Court and what's at stake.”
Taking a page from Bernie Sanders in the first Democratic debate complaining about the media coverage of Clinton’s e-mail scandal, Clinton went after her allies in the liberal media for not acquiescing to her pleas to have debates feature abortion questions:
We've had eight debates before, this is our ninth. We've not had one question about a woman's right to make her own decisions about reproductive health care, not one question and in the meantime, we have states, governors doing everything they can to restrict women's rights.
After citing Donald Trump’s comment about wanting to punish women who had abortions, Clinton criticized Sanders for suggesting that Trump’s statement was just a distraction.
“I don't think it's a distraction. It goes to the heart of who we are as women, our rights, our autonomy, our ability to make our own decisions, and we need to be talking about that and defending Planned Parenthood from these outrageous attacks,” Clinton concluded.
During the debate’s first hour, Clinton tangled with co-moderator Dana Bash when CNN’s chief political correspondent repeatedly challenged her on the inability thus far to release the transcripts of her paid speeches to large financial firms and interest groups.
The relevant portion of the transcript from the CNN Democratic Debate on April 14 can be found below.
CNN Democratic Debate
April 14, 2016
10:47 p.m. Eastern
HILLARY CLINTON: And I want to say something about this since we're talking about the Supreme Court and what's at stake. We've had eight debates before, this is our ninth. We've not had one question about a woman's right to make her own decisions about reproductive health care, not one question and in the meantime, we have states, governors doing everything they can to restrict women's rights. We have a presidential candidate by the name of Donald Trump saying that women should be punished and we are never asked about this and to be complete in my concern, Senator Sanders said with respect to Trump, it was a distraction. I don't think it's a distraction. It goes to the heart of who we are as women, our rights, our autonomy, our ability to make our own decisions, and we need to be talking about that and defending Planned Parenthood from these outrageous attacks.
