As Monday's CNN Newsroom with Carol Costello devoted a segment to whether political rhetoric against Planned Parenthood's practices inspired an attack on a Colorado Planned Parenthood office, host Costello began by asserting that GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina had "falsely" claimed that the abortion provider "was guilty of harvesting a live baby's organs" as the CNN host wondered if such "rhetoric" is "fueling" violence.
And Daily Beast contributor Dean Obeidallah took aim at Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, and Dr. Ben Carson as he made charges of politicians "legitimizing hate," and charged that most extreme language comes from the right more than the left.
About 9:30 a.m., Costello recalled the latest on the murder victims before bringing up the issue of "heated rhetoric." Costello:
Police sources tell CNN (Robert) Dear made remarks about, quote, "baby parts," after surrendering, and expressed anti-abortion and anti-government views. If that's why Dear allegedly killed, what if anything inspired him to do it? Some say it's the heated rhetoric that pervades our politics.
After several clips of presidential candidates discussing the issue mostly on Sunday talk show, the CNN host brought aboard the liberal Obeidallah and right-leaning CNN political commentator Ben Ferguson, and went after Fiorina as she began:
So, Ben, it was Carly Fiorina who said falsely that Planned Parenthood was guilty of harvesting a live baby's organs. So is it this kind of rhetoric that's fueling these mentally unbalanced people to act?
After Ferguson blamed the gunman for the murder spree and then defended the criticisms against Planned Parenthood selling baby body parts, Costello turned to Obeidallah who took aim at a number of GOP presidential candidates for "legitimizing hate" and "radicalizing people." After denying that one comment from Fiorina was responsible for the carnage, the Daily Beast contributor continued:
What's happening is, we have a culture that certain politicians are legitimizing hate, and the result is that that can radicalize people. They're taking them to the doorstep of violence. They're not pushing them through it, but they just need a slight push to go through it. But we need responsible words by our politicians. Politicians can inspire people for good, for bad, or for deadly acts. So let's have some responsibility and especially from the right. Let's be honest, the rhetoric, the extreme stuff is not coming from the same side, from the left and the right, but more from the right.
A bit later, the liberal Obeidallah claimed to be "objective" as he added:
And to be honest, it's not just Donald Trump. Marco Rubio, after the videos came out, said, "We should be more than fired up." That's his words, "more than fired up." What is "more than fired up"? Perhaps violence. You had Ted Cruz on the issues of marriage equality saying gay community is waging a jihad on people of faith.
And Ben Carson's stuff about Muslims been off the charts. Even stuff about policy saying ObamaCare is as bad as slavery. See, I didn't know slavery had a 24-hour customer support hotline. But the reality is we live in a world where hyper rhetoric gets people on the right -- the more extreme people on the right and the left, but let's be honest, more of the rhetoric is coming from the right. And I'm being objective here, Ben, I'm not being partisan.
Costello also defended Planned Parenthood again in response to Ferguson's criticisms as she declared that the abortion provider had been "found guilty of nothing":
CAROL COSTELLO: But I will say, there was nothing found, and there have been multiple investigations done by individual states, nothing found, Planned Parenthood has been found guilty of nothing.
MIKE FERGUSON: (INAUDIBLE) it's not illegal, it's unethical at the bare minimum, and they act as if somehow they're under attack when their own words were caught on camera. And this is the reason why this debate is so intense.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Monday, November 30, CNN Newsroom with Carol Costello:
CAROL COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We now know who was murdered when a gunman stormed a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. Officers Garrett Swasey, a police officer; Ke'Arre Stewart, an Iraq War veteran; and Jennifer Markovsky, a mother of two. Later this morning, their suspected killer, Robert Dear, will be in court. Police sources tell CNN Dear made remarks about, quote, "baby parts," after surrendering, and expressed anti-abortion and anti-government views. If that's why Dear allegedly killed, what if anything inspired him to do it? Some say it's the heated rhetoric that pervades our politics.
(CLIPS OF POLITICAL FIGURES MOSTLY FROM THE SUNDAY TALK SHOWS)
COSTELLO: ...So, Ben, it was Carly Fiorina who said falsely that Planned Parenthood was guilty of harvesting a live baby's organs. So is it this kind of rhetoric that's fueling these mentally unbalanced people to act?
BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, these people are mentally unbalanced before this debate even started. And if there's anything to learn from this, when a group makes a -- a video comes out and a group has members of their group that are doing the things and saying the things on camera that Planned Parenthood have, maybe if they had taken a little bit of responsibility and said that these people do not represent our views and they have been fired, that could have stopped a lot of this rhetoric from getting heated, but the issue was that you had-
COSTELLO: So you're blaming Planned Parenthood, Ben?
FERGUSON: No, I'm not blaming Planned Parenthood. I'm also not blaming the rhetoric coming from conservatives. My point is this: The reason why this rhetoric gets so heated is because there is no admission that some of the people of Planned Parenthood did things that were inappropriate and they should have been fired by Planned Parenthood. So when you say, "We didn't do anything," and "these videos are doctored," you see both sides go in their corner for this massive fight.But let's be clear. This fight needed to happen, and this debate needs to take place. Because you have one psychotic killer, an act of domestic terrorism, there is no doubt about it it is domestic terrorism, this individual obviously had major issues long before this debate even surfaced a couple of months ago, so, to blame anybody for this is, I think, is unrealistic. You have to blame the individual. There's 300 million plus Americans in this country. You have one guy that's crazy before this debate, he was crazy during it and after the debate, and he's a domestic terrorist, no doubt.
COSTELLO: Dean, your thoughts?DEAN OBEIDALLAH, DAILY BEAST CONTRIBUTOR: I think that -- I want to say I'm heartened by Ben saying, "Let's look at the one person," in a way, you know, usually if the person is a Muslim, the perpetrator, we don't do that, they find out the religion, they instantly go, "That person's a terrorist," and they're somehow inspired by their faith. I'll be honest, I agree with Ben this, I don't think Carly Fiorina's comments or one comment alone led this man to shoot someone. There has been four arson attacks on Planned Parenthood offices since the video came out.
What's happening is, we have a culture that certain politicians are legitimizing hate, and the result is that that can radicalize people. They're taking them to the doorstep of violence. They're not pushing them through it, but they just need a slight push to go through it. But we need responsible words by our politicians. Politicians can inspire people for good, for bad, or for deadly acts. So let's have some responsibility and especially from the right. Let's be honest, the rhetoric, the extreme stuff is not coming from the same side, from the left and the right, but more from the right.
COSTELLO: I think, Ben, what Dean is talking about, for example, the Black Lives Matter protester who was roughed up at a Trump event, and Trump intimated that, you know, maybe the guy deserved it. Is that really the kind of rhetoric we want flying out there in this time?
FERGUSON: I think that's only coming from Donald Trump. Donald Trump is far off the reservation compared to other candidates. And there is nobody even remotely close that said you should go out there and do anything but protest Planned Parenthood, which these protests against Planned Parenthood have been going on for decades now. And, again, I go back to this, if we really want to talk about responsibility, then let's be responsible organizations when there is something comes to light that is against your core values. Planned Parenthood should have said, "These people in these videos go against our core values." We could have settled this months ago, but they said, "Well, these aren't real people, these aren't representing our organization.
COSTELLO: But I will say, there was nothing found, and there have been multiple investigations done by individual states, nothing found, Planned Parenthood has been found guilty of nothing.
FERGUSON: (INAUDIBLE) it's not illegal, it's unethical at the bare minimum, and they act as if somehow they're under attack when their own words were caught on camera. And this is the reason why this debate is so intense.
OBEIDALLAH: Can I say one thing, Ben? And I know you're not trying to do this, but it really sounds like you're blaming the victim here of Planned Parenthood.
FERGUSON: I'm not blaming the victim.
OBEIDALLAH: I know you're not, but that's what it sounds like. And to be honest, it's not just Donald Trump. Marco Rubio, after the videos came out, said, "We should be more than fired up." That's his words, "more than fired up." What is "more than fired up"? Perhaps violence. You had Ted Cruz on the issues of marriage equality saying gay community is waging a jihad on people of faith.And Ben Carson's stuff about Muslims been off the charts. Even stuff about policy saying ObamaCare is as bad as slavery. See, I didn't know slavery had a 24-hour customer support hotline. But the reality is we live in a world where hyper rhetoric gets people on the right -- the more extreme people on the right and the left, but let's be honest, more of the rhetoric is coming from the right. And I'm being objective here, Ben, I'm not being partisan. I really see-
FERGUSON: I don't think more of it is coming from the right. I think when you see Bernie Sanders and what he said yesterday vilifying Republicans and acting as if the Republicans are responsible for a crazy man is not exactly being calm, cool and collected. He acted as if this is the Republicans' fault.
OBEIDALLAH; I don't see him demonizing minority groups, though. You know, Donald Trump, don't forget, in August, a Latino homeless guy was beaten up by people who invoked Donald Trump's words about Latinos. The words matter.
FERGUSON: And cops have been shot and killed because of the words of Black Lives Matter, so it happens on both sides.
OBEIDALLAH: That's not true. I don't see any evidence of that.
FERGUSON: Yes, it is, When they were out there saying, "Pigs in a blanket, fry them like bacon."
OBEIDALLAH: That's an isolated incident, and you know it.
FERGUSON: You're telling me that's calm?
OBEIDALLAH: But, Ben, there were five Black Lives Matter protesters just got shot up in Minneapolis by white supremacists just a week ago.
COSTELLO: I thank you both for bringing up valid points. I got to leave it there.
