For the second year in a row, Vice President Kamala Harris sought out a T-ball interview on MSNBC to mark the anniversary of the demise of Roe v. Wade. Last year, it was Joy Reid, this year, it was Mika Brzezinski on Monday’s Morning Joe. In both cases, Harris was joined by pro-abortion advocates who helped paint a dystopian future. This year that included predictions that the women in your life will die if Donald Trump wins.
Harris’s co-interviewee was Hadley Duvall, who is a pro-abortion activist who was raped when she was 12 by her stepfather. Brzezinski referenced her story when she fear-mongered about miscarriage care, “Hadley, miscarried. If that—if she needed care for that today, depending on where you live, you may not get it. It's been two years now since Roe was overturned and now we're dealing with the raw reality of that, which is women bleeding out in parking lots, on bathroom floors.”
Despite all the rhetoric, miscarriage care is not illegal and media fearmongering contributes to what Brzezinski claims to deplore. Still, Brzezinski asked, “I'm curious what your thoughts were when Roe was overturned and now what we do with the cases before us, like Idaho, if the Supreme Court goes with the state, are women able to get abortion care in ERs in Idaho? Are there going to be any other options?”
Harris went on a long, rambling answer that lamented that “the highest court in our land just took a fundamental right that had been recognized from the people of America, from the women of America to make decisions about their own body. The notion of it all, that in this year of our Lord, 2024, the highest court in the United States of America would take such a fundamental freedom from its people?”
Abortion activist Hadley Duvall: “If you have a woman in your life … her life is at stake. It doesn’t matter if she is 12, 9, 34, you know, it really does not matter. If there is a woman who is in that reproductive age, then, you know, her life is at stake during this election.” pic.twitter.com/JuLFRMLPZJ
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 24, 2024
That abortion ends a life is a fact, but Harris tried to portray it as a mere religious opinion, “I think most people agree you don't have to abandon your faith. You don't have to abandon your faith or deeply-held beliefs that the government should not be telling women what to do with their bodies. If they choose, they will consult with their priest, their pastor, their rabbi, their imam, but not the government telling women what to do.”
Brzezinski then turned to Duvall and simply asked, “What is at stake in this election?”
Duvall began:
So much, you know, if you have a woman in your life who means something to you, her life is at stake. It does not matter if she is 12, 9, 34, you know, it really does not matter. If there is a woman who is in that reproductive age, then, you know, her life is at stake during this election and it does not matter if you've never voted Democrat in your life, you know? It's get off your high horse because women, we don't get to choose, you know, a whole lot and you can at least choose who you can vote for and there is a lot of things that need to be worked on and, you know, we can't get it all done, but at the very least, we could get out of women's business when it involves their health care.”
She also claimed that the belief that the unborn child is, in fact, a human being with rights, is just a religious opinion, “your religion shouldn't determine everybody's outcome because I don't believe that my God that I worship and that I've learned about all of my life would have ever wished something like that upon me.”
Later in the show, Brzezinski slightly changed topics as she worried about polling, “So let's talk about that contrast. President Biden and you have both warned that democracy is at stake in this election if Trump wins a second term, women's rights will continue to be decimated, that international alliances will be frayed. That's to say the least. That your work, rebuilding the middle class will be destroyed, that rights for minorities will be rolled back. If the contrast is so obvious, what's going on? Why does it poll so closely? Why is the race so close?”
Harris replied by simply claiming that presidential elections are always close. Speaking of presidential elections, Morning Joe is doing their best to help the campaign as this interview comes six months after Brzezinski's similarly soft interview with First Lady Jill Biden.
Here is a transcript for the June 24 show:
MSNBC Morning Joe
6/24/2024
6:32 PM ET
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Hadley, miscarried. If that—if she needed care for that today, depending on where you live, you may not get it. It's been two years now since Roe was overturned and now we're dealing with the raw reality of that, which is women bleeding out in parking lots, on bathroom floors. I'm curious what your thoughts were when Roe was overturned and now what we do with the cases before us, like Idaho, if the Supreme Court goes with the state, are women able to get abortion care in ERs in Idaho? Are there going to be any other options?
KAMALA HARRIS: Listen, first of all, I will say let's really be clear how we got here, because the former president hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade and they did exactly as he intended. And in state after state, we are seeing what I call Trump abortion bans, including states that — a six-week abortion ban, which tells you that these legislators clearly don't know how a woman's body works, or they don't care.
In that, most women don't know they are pregnant in six weeks and to your point, Mika, you know, there are two, I think, coexisting issues here that are extremely important. One is the notion that the highest court in our land just took a fundamental right that had been recognized from the people of America, from the women of America to make decisions about their own body. The notion of it all, that in this year of our Lord, 2024, the highest court in the United States of America would take such a fundamental freedom from its people?
And understanding this is not just a matter that is for debate and discussion and intellectual conversation. The real harm that has occurred every day in America since that case was decided and these laws are being passed, to your point, we know the stories about women seeking care because they are going through a miscarriage and being turned away by an emergency room because the physicians there are afraid they’re going be put in jail. In a state like Texas, they provide prison for life for a healthcare provider doing their job and I don't think that — I think when you look at this issue, I think most people agree you don't have to abandon your faith. You don't have to abandon your faith or deeply-held beliefs that the government should not be telling women what to do with their bodies. If they choose, they will consult with their priest, their pastor, their rabbi, their imam, but not the government telling women what to do.
BRZEZINSKI: What is at stake in this election?
HADLEY DUVALL: So much, you know, if you have a woman in your life who means something to you, her life is at stake. It does not matter if she is 12, 9, 34, you know, it really does not matter. If there is a woman who is in that reproductive age, then, you know, her life is at stake during this election and it does not matter if you've never voted Democrat in your life, you know?
It's get off your high horse because women, we don't get to choose, you know, a whole lot and you can at least choose who you can vote for and there is a lot of things that need to be worked on and, you know, we can't get it all done, but at the very least, we could get out of women's business when it involves their health care.
And I've always said, you know, I'm pro-minding your own business. Live your religion, live it, live it loudly, but don't expect your religion to make the laws and that’s like, you know, your religion should be lived through and through, whether that is the law or not. However you came up, however you want to live your religion, it shouldn't be forced on anybody else. And, you know, it shouldn't -- your religion shouldn't determine everybody's outcome because I don't believe that my God that I worship and that I've learned about all of my life would have ever wished something like that upon me.
…
7:19 AM ET
BRZEZINSKI: So let's talk about that contrast. President Biden and you have both warned that democracy is at stake in this election—
HARRIS: Yeah.
BRZEZINSKI: — that if Trump wins a second term, women's rights will continue to be decimated, that international alliances will be frayed. That's to say the least. That your work, rebuilding the middle class will be destroyed, that rights for minorities will be rolled back. If the contrast is so obvious, what's going on? Why does it poll so closely? Why is the race so close?
HARRIS: These races are always close. It's the election of the president of the United States, and everyone in an election for president of the United States will critically examine all of the issues and make a decision, but at the end of the day we're going to win. We're going to win.
