Because my wife was a registered Democrat, the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee (DSCC) has spent the last couple of years inundating her with emails both attacking Republicans and promoting Democrats.
Fair enough.
But it seems to me there has to be at least some semblance of honesty in those emails. And many of them don’t meet that criterion.
Take the one that came in this morning, attacking the Republican candidates who debated last night.
Here is what the email said about abortion:
BREAKING: Republican candidates call for NATIONWIDE ABORTION BAN in first primary debate!
Sign on now to CONDEMN the GOP’s plan to take away reproductive rights >>
Arleen, this is URGENT: Republicans on the debate stage just unveiled their plans to BAN abortion nationwide.
This extreme plan would hurt millions of Americans, so we must PROVE that Democrats won’t let it happen without a fight.
What does that tell you? It tells you that Republicans – all of them – if elected, will try to ban all abortions. You elect one of this bunch and abortions will be illegal in the United States, period.
The problem? That is absolutely, unequivocally untrue.
Here, from Alice Miranda Ollstein’s article for politico.com – which, to say the least, is not a Republican-friendly site – is what actually was said about abortion last night:
DeSantis touted the six-week abortion ban he signed in Florida — a law that has yet to take effect, pending state Supreme Court review — but dodged the moderator’s question of whether he would sign a similar federal ban into law.
“I will stand on the side of life,” he responded. “I understand Wisconsin will do it different than Texas. I understand Iowa and New Hampshire will do it different. But I will support the cause of life as governor and as president.”
Haley also demurred, as she has in the past, arguing that national ban isn’t likely to garner the needed 60 Senate votes to pass and calling for narrower restrictions instead.
“Can’t we all agree that we should ban late-term abortions? Can’t we all agree that we should encourage adoptions? Can’t we all agree that doctors and nurses who don’t believe in abortions shouldn’t have to perform them? Can’t we agree that contraception should be available? Can’t we all agree that we are not going to put a woman in jail or give her the death penalty if she gets an abortion?”
Former Vice President Mike Pence went after Haley for her answer, calling it “the opposite of leadership” and pledging to sign a national ban.
“It’s not a states-only issue. It’s a moral issue,” he said, calling for “a minimum standard in every state.”
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) also voiced support for a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, saying: “We can’t leave it to Illinois. We can’t leave it to Minnesota.
But another red state governor on the debate stage, North Dakota’s Doug Burgum, took the opposite stance, saying that while he signed a 6-week ban in his own state, he is against federal legislation.
“The feds are stepping into people’s lives and stepping into people’s businesses over and over,” Burgum said. “If we say the fed should be in this, where do we stop?”
Does that look like they all promoted a national ban on abortions to you? Since not one Republican called for a national ban, I will assume that either your answer is no, or you are too partisan to acknowledge what is in front of your eyes.
But every person who got the same email my wife did – and I have to believe that would be millions and millions of them – now “knows” that if any Republican is elected President a national ban on abortions is on the table.
And if you’re counting on mainstream media to debunk this lie, you have a lot to learn about the current state of our mainstream media.
There’s more to say about this debate – and about the difference between Democrats and Republicans on the abortion issue (if you want to talk extremism, let’s talk late-term abortion…and treatment of live babies who survived abortion attempts). More to come in future blogs.
