MSNBC Host Calls Rep. Mike Johnson an ‘Idiot’ for Opposing Aborting Child ‘Seconds Away’ from Birth

Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks during a House Judiciary Committee markup of the articles
Alex Brandon/AP
Joshua Klein

House Republican Conference Vice Chair Mike Johnson (R-LA) is an “idiot” for opposing the late-term abortion of a child only “seconds away” from birth, according to MSNBC’s Katie Phang, who heaped praise upon an Alabama abortion provider who avoided the congressman’s questioning during a tense hearing on access to the medical procedure this week.

Filling in for The Cross Connection host Tiffany Cross on Saturday, the MSNBC guest host slammed conservative lawmaker Mike Johnson in a segment with Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood of St. Louis, Missouri.

Claiming that Republicans demonstrated “their lack of understanding of the reality when abortions are performed” during a congressional hearing on Wednesday, Phang showed a clip of GOP Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana questioning Dr. Yashica Robinson, medical director of the Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives, on the witness stand. 

“Do you support the right of a woman who is just seconds away from birthing a healthy child to have an abortion?” Rep. Johnson asked Robinson.

“I think that the question that you’re asking does not realistically reflect abortion care in the United States,” she responded. 

In turn, Rep. Johnson replied: “In that scenario, would you support her right to abort that child?”

Robinson, refusing to answer, said, “I won’t entertain theoreticals. That’s not reality.”

After Rep. Johnson explained that the matter was “not a theoretical” one, Robinson said that such “has never happened.”

Phang then praised the doctor for “standing her ground.” 

“Good for this doctor… for standing her ground and saying, ‘you’re an idiot, and you [don’t] know what you’re doing,’” the stand-in host said. “She said it more politely than me.” 

Phang also accused GOP lawmakers of “making the spread of misinformation and disinformation into a congressional art form.”

Rep. Johnson responded to the exchange in a tweet, claiming, “Asking simple, basic questions to pro-abortion Democrats has never once yielded a sensible answer.”

The matter comes in the wake of a recent leak of a draft opinion that signals the U.S. Supreme Court is ready to overturn its decision in Roe v. Wade, which has resulted in nationwide pro-abortion protests.

Last weekend, a pregnancy center in Baltimore was allegedly vandalized with threatening messages as pro-abortion supporters took to the streets.

The attack follows another one earlier this month where the left-wing radical group Antifa reportedly attacked a crisis pregnancy center in Portland, Oregon, breaking several windows and writing vulgar messages.

Last Thursday, pro-abortion demonstrators outside George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School called for “mandatory vasectomies” in a protest of an address set to be given by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito at the school.

Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.

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