Perry Turns Planned Parenthood Scandal Back on MSNBC’s Halperin (See Note and Update)
Note: The NewsBusters post was update to reflect Mika Brzezinski’s actual reaction, which I did not properly, and for Mark Halperin’s appalling response to a question from Joe Scarborough shortly after the exchange with Perry.
As usual, much of the press has responded to scandalous behavior by leftist sacred cows by making the story about Republicans criticizing the actions instead of the scandal itself.
On the one hand, are we really supposed to believe that only pro-lifers are horrified by the evidence that Planned Parenthood, aka Planned Parthood, sells the body parts of aborted preborn babies? Gosh, I hope not. So it’s more than fair to turn the question around on anyone who tries to isolate the objections in that way. Mark Halperin at MSNBC tried that on Rick Perry, asking him, “Why are you so troubled by this video?” — as if the former Texas governor is the one with a problem.
As will be seen in the video below (HT the Washington Examiner), Perry was in no mood to make it about him:
Transcript (relevant segment begins at the 2:00 mark):
MARK HALPERIN: Governor, I’d like to ask you a couple of questions about Planned Parenthood. There’s a controversy swirling around that you’ve weighed in on. First, I’d like you to say, does Planned Parenthood do anything, provide any services that you think are valuable, and if so what are they, and second, why are you so troubled by this video?”
RICK PERRY: Well, Planned Parenthood does give some services which I would suggest are good for women’s health, but —
HALPERIN: Which ones, Governor? Can you be specific on that?
PERRY: Oh, I think some of the cancer screenings, some of those types of screening are obviously good for women’s health. But when you look at the overall picture of what they do, they are, they’re in a business that people of Texas have a conern about.
And Mark, let me ask you, You looked at that video and you’re good with it?
HALPERIN: I think the video raises a lot of questions and you and others have raised them.
PERRY: It does indeed. And I think you just answered the question for us. Thank you.
A few seconds after Perry’s answer, I believe I heard MSNBC Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski audibly say “Ohhh!” in disgust at how successful Perry was at turning Halperin’s question around.
If I’m right — Too bad, so sad, dear. Or are you going to tell us you’re not disturbed by the video? Is that really what it takes to be a true-blue progrssive these days?
UPDATE: NewsBusters reports at the revised version of the post that Mika actually said “nice!” in response to Perry’s throwback at Halperin.
Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.
