Failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted Sen. Kamala Harris’s debunked attempt to smear Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh over a case he summarized during his Senate confirmation hearings.
I want to be sure we're all clear about something that Brett Kavanaugh said in his confirmation hearings last week. He referred to birth-control pills as "abortion-inducing drugs." That set off a lot of alarm bells for me, and it should for you, too.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 12, 2018
“I want to be sure we’re all clear about something that Brett Kavanaugh said in his confirmation hearings last week,” Clinton tweeted Wednesday morning. “He referred to birth-control pills as ‘abortion-inducing drugs.’ That set off a lot of alarm bells for me, and it should for you, too.”
On Friday, however, Harris tweeted out her deceptively edited video of Kavanaugh’s exchange with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz regarding the case of Priests for Life v. HHS – a deception that was quickly discovered and declared false, even by the progressive Washington Post and PolitiFact:
Kavanaugh chooses his words very carefully, and this is a dog whistle for going after birth control. He was nominated for the purpose of taking away a woman’s constitutionally protected right to make her own health care decisions. Make no mistake – this is about punishing women. pic.twitter.com/zkBjXzIvQI
— Kamala Harris (@SenKamalaHarris) September 7, 2018
Harris’s video was a sliced-and-diced version of Kavanaugh’s response to Cruz – which made it appear the nominee himself views contraceptives as “abortion-inducing drugs.”
“Kavanaugh chooses his words very carefully, and this is a dog whistle for going after birth control,” Harris posted with her “war on women” edited video. “He was nominated for the purpose of taking away a woman’s constitutionally protected right to make her own health care decisions. Make no mistake – this is about punishing women.”
Even after being condemned and called out on her deception, Harris doubled down on it. She was forced to reveal Kavanaugh’s full statement but then persisted in her narrative by stating, “There’s no question that he uncritically used the term ‘abortion-inducing drugs,’ which is a dog whistle term used by extreme anti-choice groups to describe birth control”:
Here is Kavanaugh's full answer. There's no question that he uncritically used the term "abortion-inducing drugs," which is a dog whistle term used by extreme anti-choice groups to describe birth control. pic.twitter.com/PMbZzu8DqD
— Kamala Harris (@SenKamalaHarris) September 8, 2018
The Post gave Harris “Four Pinocchios” and recommended she and “her fellow Democrats should drop this talking point.”
“In Harris’ tweet, Kavanaugh appears to define contraception as abortion-inducing,” PolitiFact wrote. “But the video failed to include a crucial qualifier: ‘They said.’ In fact, he was citing the definition of the religious group Priests for Life. He has not expressed his personal view.”
“We rate this statement False,” PolitiFact concluded.
Clinton, however, is continuing the narrative:
When Kavanaugh called birth control "abortion-inducing drugs," he made it clear that safe and legal abortion isn't the only fundamental reproductive right at grave risk if he is confirmed. Access to birth control is, too.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 12, 2018
Imagine an America in which women are barred from getting IUDs or birth control pills, and doctors are criminalized for prescribing them. It's an America in which women would be punished for insisting on being full and equal partners in society.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 12, 2018
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