After spending Tuesday afternoon whining about Planned Parenthood opting out of Title X funding over an abortion gag order, MSNBC journalists kept up the shameless partisanship into the evening on The Beat With Ari Melber. To no one’s surprise, the MSNBC host brought on a far-left feminist panel to melt down over the news, who laughably attacked the right’s “morality” for not allowing government funding of abortion.
After Melber introduced the topic, Liz Plank from Vox, ranted this was a “war on Americans” because the right to kill your child is “about freedom.” Geesh. She went on to sneer at poor women who voted for Trump in 2016 as not knowing what's good for them:
...It's actually a war on people, it’s a war on Americans. Because reproductive rights is about freedom. Everyone who is pregnant definitely had a guy involved somehow in some capacity. And so men also benefit from reproductive rights and reproductive justice…. They [Trump administration] want us to make it about feminism and scare away those voters. It's not about that. It's about poor people in this country many of them who are voting for Donald Trump who are voting against their best interests.
Melber asked his second guest Rutgers University professor Brittney Cooper to comment on how this is yet another example of the Trump administration targeting poor people. Cooper went on a ridiculous tirade, worthy of a liberal college professor, attacking the “beacon of darkness” President Trump who was “assaulting” women, and “trans people’s” reproductive rights. Cooper even claimed the right had “no moral compass” because...they didn’t want the government to pay for abortion?
There is no moral compass on the right, right now. Trump is no beacon of anything but darkness. Part of what he's using the law and weaponizing it against the poor, against women, against people who can get pregnant, against people of color. The thing we have to remember is all these forms of tribalism and division, they go together. You don't get a racist president without getting a president who is deeply sexist. That actually is a moral call to women. Most white women voters voted for Donald Trump in the last election. Now they are dealing with the consequences of having this man assault their rights. And as a by-product of that, you see trans people who need reproductive care services being assaulted and you see poor black women...
You can read the full transcript below:
The Beat with Ari Melber
8/20/19
6:14:43PM-6:17:16PM EST
LIZ PLANK: It's actually a war on people, it’s a war on Americans. Because reproductive rights is about freedom. Everyone who is pregnant definitely had a guy involved somehow in some capacity. And so men also benefit from reproductive rights and reproductive justice. They benefit from the Planned Parenthood clinics that are going to be shutting down or not going to be able to give STI screenings, cancer screenings. Those are things that are very important to all people. It's also a war on poor people. 75% of clinics, Planned Parenthood clinics, 75% of the people who use the clinics are people who are either on the poverty line or below the poverty line. So It comes back to our entire conversation. They want us to make it about identity. They want us to make it about feminism and scare away those voters. It's not about that. It's about poor people in this country many of them who are voting for Donald Trump who are voting against their best interests.
ARI MELBER: Britney, bring it all home for us. Because as Liz says, these are constitutional rights. They are gender issues. There is a feminist component but there are also the facts that this is an administration that over just the past few months as taken this rule which targets many people whom benefit from the services but also disproportionately the poor. They're going after SNAP food assistance, they’re going after school lunches. We did a report on this show. The majority of school lunch recipients happen to be poor white Americans in rural areas. Of course the question whether we want a government that provides food to hungry 10-year-olds is the questions that stories sometimes get pushed aside by all of the noise.
BRITTNEY COOPER: There is no moral compass on the right, right now. Trump is no beacon of anything but darkness. Part of what he's using the law and weaponizing it against the poor, against women, against people who can get pregnant, against people of color. The thing we have to remember is all these forms of tribalism and division, they go together. You don't get a racist president without getting a president who is deeply sexist. That actually is a moral call to women. Most white women voters voted for Donald Trump in the last election. Now they are dealing with the consequences of having this man assault their rights. And as a by-product of that, you see trans people who need reproductive care services being assaulted and you see poor black women. I needed reduced lunches as a kid growing up with a single mom in a poor southern state. I wouldn't be here today without those kinds you have governmental services. That is Trump’s point. He doesn't want a world where Liz, Mark and I are sitting at the table, helping to drive the discussion. That is the thing that must change.
