According to CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin, conservative “rhetoric” “tossed fuel” onto the fire that is the abortion debate. The journalist appeared on The View, Monday, and demanded Republicans be held accountable in the wake of a Colorado Planned Parenthood shooting last week. Hostin blamed, “I don’t think we can ignore the rhetoric that has been out there from the Republican Party, from the right.”
Singling out Republican presidential candidates who have condemned Planned Parenthood, she continued, “The bottom line is there was a lot of rhetoric out there and people need to be more accountable for what comes out of their mouth.” Connecting conservatives and the killing of three people in Colorado, Hostin slimed, “The bottom line there is, yes, that is sort of tossing fuel onto something that's already very, very flammable.”
Weirdly, the CNN analyst began her attack by prefacing, “I mean, I'm pro-life and for some people that's a dirty word. But that's my belief.” However, a few seconds later, Hostin derided Republican candidates who have “talked about these videos that have now been soundly debunked.” Soundly debunked?
Hostin has a history of delivering liberal talking points on The View. On July 11, 2014, she lectured, “We go too far with putting our religious beliefs on other people” and added that people hide “behind religion to do some really terrible things to other people.”
On June 9, 2014, Hostin railed against the Supreme Court’s “scary” decision finding in favor of Hobby Lobby’s right to not provide certain controceptives to employees.
A partial transcript of the November 30 View segment, which aired at 11:07am ET, is below:
PAULA FARIS: Let's just keep in mind, this guy was an extremist, too. And I don't think any of the candidates, especially on one particular side of the aisle, are condoning or encouraging violence. This guy doesn't speak for the majority of the pro- lifers. Just like ISIS doesn’t speak for the majority of the people who believe in Islam. Just like the NRA doesn’t speak represent the majority of gun owners in this country and Tammy Faye doesn’t speak for the majority of Christians. This guy was an extremist and violence never begets violence.
MICHELLE COLLINS: You know what I had an issue with was the fact that the Republican candidates took so long to tweet anything about it.
FARIS: 36 hours.
COLLINS: Yeah. That's a very long time. You show me for people running for president — first of all, all the Democrat candidates, including Martin O'Malley did send a tweet out about it. But you show me another shooting anywhere where they would have taken 36 hours to comment, just saying our thoughts are with the families or anything. That silence kills me and I think it's wrong.
SUNNY HOSTIN: I think that's a fair point. And, I mean, I'm pro-life and for some people that's a dirty word. But that's my belief. But I don’t think, Paula, we can ignore the rhetoric that has been out there from the Republican Party, from the right. And the bottom line there is, yes, that is sort of tossing fuel onto something that's already very, very flammable. And I think it's irresponsible not to step out in front of it if you're a candidate that has, you know, talked about these videos that have now been soundly debunked and not walk it back in a time like this. You have to lead from the front. And I was very surprised that they took 36 hours to talk about this. If you are a leader, then you meet it head on. And I don't think it's fair to just sort of say, “well, I'm pro-life, but, you know, this guy is just sort of on the fringe.” The bottom line is there was a lot of rhetoric out there and people need to be more accountable for what comes out of their mouth.
