Not surprisingly, liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow led off the Tuesday edition of her eponymous show by opining on the House hearing featuring Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards and lamenting how “the whole Republican Party is more unified to try to destroy Planned Parenthood than they are unified on anything else” with their “demagoguery” that she determined worked out “very badly” for them.
Before turning to the developments on Tuesday at the United Nations for the bulk of her opening segment, Maddow teased an exclusive interview with Richards by sounding off on the hearing with the acknowledgment that the GOP “has waging war against Planned Parenthood, women’s health centers for years now” but recently “has intensified to the point where basically the whole Republican Party is more unified to try to destroy Planned Parenthood than they are unified on anything else.”
Without mentioning the multiple videos released by the Center for Medical Progress (CMP), MSNBC personality griped:
All their anti-Planned Parenthood propaganda and demagoguery and political haymaking of the past few months, just this anti-Planned Parenthood frenzy in Republican politics and anti-abortion politics over the last few months has all been building up to what happened today when Republicans in Congress demanded that the president of Planned Parenthood testify under oath in Congress.
Further lamenting that the GOP “kept her there for five hours” in what she claimed to be the “big climax of their war on Planned Parenthood,” Maddow suddenly shifted to a more optimistic tune by declaring that: “[I]t did not go well for them. I think it went fine for Planned Parenthood, but it went very badly for the Republicans, who had made this appearance today in Congress into such a huge deal. It was kind of a shock.”
As mentioned, Richards joined Maddow later in the show and started soft with the abortion provider’s leader by wondering in rather oversimplified terms: “How do you think today went in terms of its consequences for Planned Parenthood? Republicans and anti-abortion groups. They thought today would be the day they finished off Planned Parenthood forever.”
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Maddow used much of her two blocks with Richards to ask her long-winded questions that included voluminous amounts of editorializing at the onset trying to guide the discussion. In one of her shorter questions, Maddow alluded to a portion of the hearing that dove into Richards’s salary and accusing the GOP of sexism:
One of the things that Republican members of Congress really did badger you about today was your salary and Democrats on the panel sort of sprung to your defense said that it was sexist of them to go after you for that since they never do the same for male CEOs, for example. Do you share their take on it? Do you think that's what was going on there?
In an example of one of her more elaborate questions, Maddow spent a great deal of time, in part, leading her toward the simple question of how Richards continues to “fight” on against pro-life Americans:
There's something coming together in Republican politics and in the sort of radical edge of the conservative and anti-abortion movement that is making this a politically effective issue for Republicans to the extent I don't think they're going to give up on it no matter how many investigations clear you, no matter how many states look into you and say actually, they're doing nothing wrong. In that kind of environment, how do you fight?
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show on September 29 can be found below.
MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show
September 29, 2015
9:00 p.m. Eastern
RACHEL MADDOW: The Republican Party has waging war against Planned Parenthood, women’s health centers for years now, but over the last few months, that war has intensified to the point where basically the whole Republican Party is more unified to try to destroy Planned Parenthood than they are unified on anything else. All of their anti-Planned Parenthood propaganda and demagoguery and political haymaking of the past few months, just this anti-Planned Parenthood frenzy in Republican politics and anti-abortion politics over the last few months has all been building up to what happened today when Republicans in Congress demanded that the president of Planned Parenthood testify under oath in Congress. They kept her there for five hours. Today, this was the big climax of their war on Planned Parenthood. They dragged Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood before Congress today, they kept her there for five hours and it did not go well for them. I think it went fine for Planned Parenthood, but it went very badly for the Republicans, who had made this appearance today in Congress into such a huge deal. It was kind of a shock.
(....)
9:36:45 p.m.
MADDOW: Ms. Richards, thanks very much for your time tonight. I know literally it has been a very long day.
CECILE RICHARDS: It's good to be here, Rachel.
MADDOW: How do you think today went in terms of its consequences for Planned Parenthood? Republicans and anti-abortion groups. They thought today would be the day they finished off Planned Parenthood forever.
(....)
MADDOW: There is still the prospect of Republicans trying to deny all federal funding from going to any Planned Parenthood facilities. Whether or not there's a government shutdown to try to achieve that, I know and people who pay attention to the facts here know that planned parenthood does not get money to do abortions, but can you explain to people following this issue whether they're for you or against you, can you explain what federal money does end up with Planned Parenthood and why.
(....)
MADDOW: So, just to be clear on that and I think sometimes the Washington language is hard to grasp from a non-Washington context. When you say reimbursement, if you're a low income person and your health care – if your health insurance is Medicaid, you get Medicaid as your insurance because of your income or because of anything else about you when you go to Planned Parenthood or go to any other provider, the government ends up paying for your service because they're your insurer. That's all we're talking about here.
(....)
MADDOW: One of the things that Republican members of Congress really did badger you about today was your salary and Democrats on the panel sort of sprung to your defense said that it was sexist of them to go after you for that since they never do the same for male CEOs, for example. Do you share their take on it? Do you think that's what was going on there?
(....)
MADDOW: And I mean, that to me was the most – I mean, I shouldn't be surprised but it was the most remarkable thing for me watching this unfold over the course of the day that I get the disingenuous nature of the attacks, frankly, waged against Planned Parenthood. I know where they're coming from, I know the tactics of the groups and I've seen what they've done in other anti-abortion tactics before they started coming after you in this way. I get it. I also get though that these things have been politically effective right now. There's something coming together in Republican politics and in the sort of radical edge of the conservative and anti-abortion movement that is making this a politically effective issue for Republicans to the extent I don't think they're going to give up on it no matter how many investigations clear you, no matter how many states look into you and say actually, they're doing nothing wrong. In that kind of environment, how do you fight?
(....)
MADDOW: On the other side of the political spectrum or from anywhere unexpected in the political spectrum, do you also find in this fight especially because it's so high profile it’s the single the most unifying issue among elected Republicans, I’d say, are finding anywhere from the other side of the spectrum, from the middle, from some place surprising you're getting support you didn't expect?
