Carly Fiorina, GOP presidential hopeful, has been making headlines a lot lately. Unfortunately for her, it’s not because she’s doing well in the polls; according to NBC , she’s presently tied for third place with Marco Rubio, at 11 percent.
No, Fiorina keeps making headlines due to her continued, unrelenting attacks on Planned Parenthood. And after being called out on her blatant lies, she’s doubling down.
As per another report from NBC , Carly Fiorina appeared on Meet The Press to defend her quotation of the controversial Planned Parenthood videos released earlier this year. Problem is, it’s pretty easy to prove that the line doesn’t exist anywhere in the videos — either the edited or uncut versions. As of the time of this writing, the original video on YouTube has accumulated over three million views — you’d think someone besides Carly Fiorina would have noticed it by now.
“Not at all. That scene absolutely does exist, and that voice saying what I said they were saying — ‘We’re gonna keep it alive to harvest its brain’ — exists as well.”
By now, the Planned Parenthood video has been proven doctored and manipulated countless times. Fiorina is working from a false premise to begin with. The video was an underhanded attempt from The Center For Medical Progress — a very official-sounding group that was actually set up by an anti-abortion activist — for the sole purpose of gathering “evidence” to malign Planned Parenthood. The videos were edited, the conversations were manipulated, and David Daleiden, founder of The Center For Medical Progress, got exactly what he wanted.
It’s not at all surprising that Carly Fiorina continues to pursue her anti-Planned Parenthood stance, although one has to wonder why she continues to follow a strategy of courting the extremist right wing, given her current standings in the polls. What is surprising is that a politician who wants a shot at the White House continues to insist that her obvious lie is true. Fiorina’s extremist supporters will no doubt take her words on faith, despite the fact they’ve surely seen the video themselves, but any moderate voters who were leaning Fiorina’s way have to be questioning their support at this point.
America may be split down the middle on the anti-abortion / pro-choice debate, but not many people want a blatant liar who refuses to own up as president.
Interestingly enough, this comes in the wake of a heated encounter yesterday between Carly Fiorina and a pro-Planned Parenthood activist yesterday. As CNN reports, Planned Parenthood supporter and 40-year-old patient Cindy Shireman, amidst a group of protesters chanting and carrying signs reading #FiorinaFibs, challenged Fiorina outside the University of Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium.
Shireman asked, “How can you, as a woman, not support our healthcare?”
“Oh, I support your health care. I don’t support the butchering of babies. And you should go look at those videos,” Fiorina fired back. Those videos, may we remind you at this point, that have been repeatedly and emphatically proven false.
“I understand we may disagree on things. You need to ask yourself some questions. Why is it that fetuses are aborted alive to butcher their brains? Why? You ought to also ask, you should look at some facts. How much money does Planned Parenthood give to Democrat candidates? This a big political rig.
What you’re talking about is rhetoric, propaganda and lies.”
“That’s what I’d say to you,” responded Shireman.
For those who are curious about her final misdirection, the answers are easily found online. Open Secrets reports that Planned Parenthood’s donations to candidates amount to practically nothing .
Fiorina’s recent string of appearances and her unfounded rhetoric also brought on an 1,800-word piece from the Washington Post yesterday detailing her time as CEO during HP’s worst years and calling her ability to run the country into question.
Whatever your stance on abortion may be, I think we can all agree that lies, mud-slinging and personal vendettas need to be kept out of politics — lessons Carly Fiorina should have learned before she decided to make a bid for the presidency. I’d normally close by saying that hopefully her lies will soon be exposed, but it would be a bit redundant here, given that they already have been.
[Photos by Scott Olson / Getty Images]