During Tuesday night’s debate with Kamala Harris, Donald Trump called out Tim Walz’s extremely radical and, frankly, diabolical abortion stance as governor of Minnesota, but for PBS’s Christiane Amanpour, the fact that Trump even brought it up made him “very, very extreme,” while her panel labeled it "extraordinarily stupid."
Amanpour styles herself as a journalist, but when abortion comes up for discussion, she becomes a full-on activist, “So, women were front and center. That as, an issue, was, you know, really something very important. The idea that women in America have now been denied their rights over their own bodies, their own free will, because of Donald Trump's appointments to the Supreme Court was certainly on display.”
She then teed up a clip of the debate, “Donald Trump himself, you know—you know how they go, the right in the United States have a very, very extreme version of abortion, you know, their criticism. I'm going to play what Donald Trump said about it.”
In the clip, Trump declared, “But her vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth, it's execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born, is okay. And that's not okay with me.”
Debate moderator Linsey Davis added, “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born.”
It is a fact that Walz signed a law that removed life-saving care requirements for babies who survived abortions. Davis and Amanpour can deny it all they want, but that is his record, and he is Harris’s running mate.
Nevertheless, Amanpour reacted to the clip by tossing the conversation over to Irish Times columnist Fintan O’Toole, “So, that was the moderator, one of the moderators who was fact checking in real-time. But I actually want to ask you, Fintan, first. When you hear a former president of the United States saying things like that, which are extreme... What do you think when you hear the former president? What do women think around the world?”
O’Toole, who has compared the Catholic Church to the Chinese Communist Party, was there to provide the echo Amanpour desired, “You know, coming from where I come from, as you say, I always thought that even though the overturning of Roe v. Wade was absolutely appalling for American women, it would also, in the end, be a huge disadvantage for the Republicans and for Trump. Because getting rid of Roe versus Wade turns the issue around from being against abortion to what are you in favor of then, you know. What do you actually think should happen to women who are in crisis pregnancies?”
He also claimed that, “he resorted to the talking points of the most extreme, fundamentalist, anti-abortion people, right? Which is this claim, which is, of course, as Maria was saying, a lie, he lies, and it was, but I think for most women watching it, it was a lie too far, right? And I think Harris did very well by picking up on that, you know, and she said, this is an insult to women. You know, picking up on the fact that what he was basically saying was, women want to murder their babies, right?”
Finally, O’Toole declared that,” leaving aside the ethics of this or the truth of it, just politically, it seemed to me to be extraordinarily stupid. If you really want to motivate women to turn out and vote and to protect themselves and their daughters and their mothers, I thought Trump was giving enormous ammunition to the Democrats.”
Apparently PBS (and CNN International, on which Amanpour and Company originally airs) thinks speaking the truth about Democrats is “extraordinarily stupid.”
Here is a transcript for the September 11 show:
PBS Amanpour and Company
9/11/2024
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So, women were front and center. That as, an issue, was, you know, really something very important. The idea that women in America have now been denied their rights over their own bodies, their own free will, because of Donald Trump's appointments to the Supreme Court was certainly on display.
Donald Trump himself, you know — you know how they go, the right in the United States have a very, very extreme version of abortion, you know, their criticism. I'm going to play what Donald Trump said about it.
DONALD TRUMP: But her vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth, it's execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born, is okay. And that's not okay with me.
LINSEY DAVIS: There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born.
AMANPOUR: So, that was the moderator, one of the moderators who was fact checking in real-time. But I actually want to ask you, Fintan, first. When you hear a former president of the United States saying things like that, which are extreme, and I could see Maria shaking her head in horror, and you in your country have had a major debate for years and decades. You had a referendum. It's a Catholic country. What do you think when you hear the former president? What do women think around the world?
FINTAN O'TOOLE: You know, coming from where I come from, as you say, I always thought that even though the overturning of Roe v. Wade was absolutely appalling for American women, it would also, in the end, be a huge disadvantage for the Republicans and for Trump. Because getting rid of Roe versus Wade turns the issue around from being against abortion to what are you in favor of then, you know. What do you actually think should happen to women who are in crisis pregnancies?
And I thought that this was an issue on which Trump ought to have been better prepared for a start. You would have thought that he would have had something intelligent to say about it. He was completely all over the place. He was unable really to give any clear answers to whether or not he would sign a nationwide abortion ban.
And then, as we just saw, he resorted to the talking points of the most extreme, fundamentalist, anti-abortion people, right? Which is this claim, which is, of course, as Maria was saying, a lie, he lies, and it was, but I think for most women watching it, it was a lie too far, right? And I think Harris did very well by picking up on that, you know, and she said, this is an insult to women. You know, picking up on the fact that what he was basically saying was, women want to murder their babies, right?
AMANPOUR: Right.
O'TOOLE: And leaving aside the ethics of this or the truth of it, just politically, it seemed to me to be extraordinarily stupid. If you really want to motivate women to turn out and vote and to protect themselves and their daughters and their mothers, I thought Trump was giving enormous ammunition to the Democrats.
