On CNN’s State of the Union, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi was asked by Jake Tapper if she had seen any of the undercover videos that showed Planned Parenthood executives casually talking about selling body parts of aborted babies.
In true Pelosi fashion, she replied that “I don’t stipulate these videos are real,” and just as President Obama hears news first from the media, Pelosi told Tapper “I’ve seen some news reports on it, but I also know that some of it is not real and you can create any reality that you want.”
That’s interesting. I always wondered how a fake aborted fetus with a heartbeat look like real aborted fetus with a heartbeat, or if all those baby body parts stuffed in a jar are real. This isn’t the “reality that you want” – this is just plain reality.
Pelosi flipped the conversation and instead of speaking on the horrific discussions in the videos, she went on to tell Tapper that the Center for Medical Progress (the group who secretly recorded the Planned Parenthood videos) should be investigated “as to how they obtained those and doctored those and had them be accepted as something that was an indictment against Planned Parenthood, because that’s not true.”
When Tapper questioned if Pelosi might feel upset with the “glibness or a lack of responsibility” for Planned Parenthood allowing cameras into their labs to begin with, she responded that she had nothing but praise for Planned Parenthood’s president, Cecile Richards and that Richards is a “spectacular leader in our country.” Pelosi also mentioned that much of the videos could be misinterpreted:
“I do think that Planned Parenthood is many people that consists of many state organizations and some of them maybe not as, how should I say it, aware of the assault that was going to be made on them and perhaps they spoke in a way that could be misinterpreted.”
When you have actual Planned Parenthood executives tossing around such statements like “finding a less crunchy technique for more whole specimens,” or bumping up the price on body parts because ““I want a Lamborghini,” it doesn’t leave much room for misinterpretation.
What’s even more bothersome is that Pelosi’s comments came right after meeting Pope Francis during his historic first trip to the United States where he spoke about the sanctity of life. Yet she calls herself a Catholic.
Tapper did ask her to reconcile their opposing views on abortion rights: “How does somebody like you who is a very strong progressive, but also somebody steeped in Catholic school, how do you reconcile the Pope's view and the Church's view of abortion to where you are politically, which is exactly on the opposite side? “ She lamely claimed the right to choose abortion is “a personal decision, not a political decision.”
The transcript of Pelosi’s tape-denial is below:
TAPPER: On the subject of the Planned Parenthood and the attempts to defund Planned Parenthood, have you seen the videos? Is there not anything on those videos that bothers you at all?
PELOSI: I don't stipulate that these videos are real. And the fact is -- and fact is that the research that is being criticized there is research that has been supported. Now, I haven't seen -- I've seen some news reports of it, but I also know that it's not real and you can create any reality that you want.
TAPPER: So OK. Even if you don't accept the videos on their face --
PELOSI: I think they should be investigated as to how they obtained those and doctored those and then had them be accepted as something that was an indictment against Planned Parenthood because that's not true.
TAPPER: Are you at all disappointed by the leadership of Planned Parenthood for letting these cameras in, by being fooled by officials at Planned Parenthood saying things that even Planned Parenthood had to apologize for, for letting these cameras into their labs? It seems like if you support the mission of Planned Parenthood, you might be upset with glibness or a lack of responsibility.
PELOSI: Well, I think that Planned Parenthood has excellent leadership. Cecile Richards, the president, is a spectacular leader in our country. I do think that Planned Parenthood is many people that consists of many state organizations and some of them maybe not as, how should I say it, aware of the assault that was going to be made on them and perhaps they spoke in a way that could be misinterpreted.
