Last updated on February 7th, 2013 at 06:08 pm
On Meet The Press today, David Gregory was caught red handed trying to distance Mitt Romney from Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock by Rachel Maddow.
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GREGORY: Fair– fair point, Rachel, one of the things you’re seeing it was Tina Fey speaking this week in New York who– who seem to me sort of strike that cord about be– going beyond abortion, about do you trust women enough to let them make decisions about their own lives, this is how– how she talked about it?
(Videotape, Center for Reproductive Rights Inaugural Gala, Wednesday)
TINA FEY: If I have to listen to one more grave-faced man with a two dollar haircut explain to me what rape is, I’m going to lose my mind.
(End videotape)GREGORY: And frankly to be– to be fair, I mean, the Romney campaign is probably singing the same thing. I’m going to lose my mind if we had to keep talking about rape in this election, because it– its association with the Republican Party that he does want to be associated with.
MS. MADDOW: Right. But then, he picked Paul Ryan. They have the fight over forced ultrasounds, the government telling you that you need to have a medically unnecessary procedure at the order of the state regardless of what you want and regardless of what your doctor says. And then he picked a guy, who picked a forced ultrasound bill for the country, Paul Ryan was onboard with that. Paul Ryan was a cosponsor with Todd Akin with bill to redefine rape. Paul Ryan was a cosponsor with bill to have personhood federally, which would not only ban all abortion it would ban in vitro fertilization. It would ban most hormonal forms of birth control. If you wanted to avoid this fight, don’t put Paul Ryan on the ticket. There’s a reason that Paul Ryan has been in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina…
David Gregory was trying to, “be fair” to Romney by claiming that he shouldn’t be lumped in with the legitimate rape and rape is God’s will zanies who populate the Republican Party, but Maddow busted him on it. Gregory was trying to sell the myth of moderate Mitt while ignoring the fact that both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan share Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock’s beliefs.
There is a reason why Romney won’t pull his endorsement of Mourdock. Romney may disagree with what Mourdock said, but he shares many of the underlying beliefs of his party. Rachel Maddow rightly stopped Gregory in his tracks when he started floating talking points that sounded like they came directly from the Romney campaign.
Gregory’s implication that Mitt Romney doesn’t want the association with that part of the Republican Party was completely false. If Romney didn’t want to be associated with it, why did he choose Paul Ryan as his running mate? If Romney wanted nothing to do with it, he would have told Mourdock to take down the ad, and pulled his endorsement.
The truth is that Romney wants the association with the far right, but he doesn’t want the broader electorate to know that he holds those views. Usually, GOP talking point machine Gregory would be able to get away with his flawed questions based on conservative positions, but Rachel Maddow was there to offer up the truth.
David Gregory’s biases are well known, so it was a treat to see his “fairness” (code for Republican talking points) offset by a strong dose of truth and reality delivered by Rachel Maddow.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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