CWR Editorial | Carl E. Olson
The White House says David Daleiden and the CMP are "extremists on the right"; Daleiden, a 26-year-old Catholic, says he's inspired by Pope Francis
Yesterday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest, when asked about President Obama's reaction to the series of undercover videos released by the Center for Medical Progress in which Planned Parenthood officials discuss selling fetal organs for profit, "said the videos were released in a 'fraudulent way' with 'not a lot of evidence' behind them." (The entire press conference can be viewed on the C-SPAN site.) Earnest stated:
There is ample reason to think that this is merely the tried and true tactic that we’ve seen from extremists on the right to edit this video and selectively release this edited version of the video that grossly distorts the position of the person that’s actually speaking...
Earnest clearly indicated that his talking points were coming from Planned Parenthood, admitting, "I’m merely repeating what I’ve seen that they [Planned Parenthood] have said..." He then offered the defense that "any review of the policy that Planned Parenthood says they implement indicates that the views expressed in the videos is—or at least the way they are depicted on the videos—is entirely inaccurate. ... But for those policies and for the way that Planned Parenthood implements them, I'd encourage you to contact Planned Parenthood." In other words, there's nothing to see here—move along!
"The President," he added in a defiant shout out to pro-abortion supporters, "certainly will not support another effort by Republicans to try to defund an organization that offers important and needed healthcare services to women across the country." I wonder: is there any institution in the U.S., at this very moment, that enjoys greater support and cover from the President of the United States than does Planned Parenthood? While Obama has wavered and flopped on many issues during his time office, he has held fast to the pro-abortion faith, even if he has long insisted that no one is really pro-abortion.
If you do a search for "Obama" and "extremists" you'll find that the POTUS often uses the term "extremists" to identify terrorists who have apparently "twisted" and distorted the teachings of true Islam. For example, in a February 17, 2015 op-ed in the LA Times, Obama wrote:
Groups like al Qaeda and ISIL promote a twisted interpretation of religion that is rejected by the overwhelming majority of the world's Muslims. The world must continue to lift up the voices of Muslim clerics and scholars who teach the true peaceful nature of Islam. We can echo the testimonies of former extremists who know how terrorists betray Islam. We can help Muslim entrepreneurs and youths work with the private sector to develop social media tools to counter extremist narratives on the Internet.
He even stated that such "violent extremists"—who, again, have nothing to do, he says, with "the true peaceful nature of Islam"—have authentic, legitimate gripes:
Comments