What the Hell Happened With Bernie Sanders's Abortion Comments This Week?

[lapucelle]

In a Meet the Press interview on Sunday, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders bungled his response to a very leading question from Chuck Todd on abortion access.

Todd asked the senator from Vermont if he was “concerned about this idea that people may try to worry about the sex of a child, or essentially, are those types of restrictions on abortions something you’re open to?” Instead of swatting away the unfounded concern that people may be terminating pregnancies after finding out the sex of the fetus — or at the very least pleading ignorance on the matter — Sanders doubled down on Todd’s assertion, saying, “That, I mean, that’s a concern … that’s an issue that society has got to deal with, and it is of concern.”

Todd followed up by asking Sanders how he would “deal with that in the law?” Sanders replied, “I don’t know how, at this particular point. I would deal with it, but that is an issue we really have got to deal with.”

But, wait, it totally isn’t. So-called “sex-selective abortions” are a talking point that conservatives have adopted in recent years; it’s based in the unfounded claim that a cultural preference for sons is driving women to terminate their pregnancies as soon as the fetus is predicted to be female.

https://bit.ly/2VUkCiR

[TomSlick]

1. Come on, Sen. Sanders!

You wiffed a hanging curve ball.

[Cha]

2. What?! BS couldn't say it's

a rw talking point?!!!

Only that “I don’t know how, at this particular point. I would deal with it, but that is an issue we really have got to deal with.”

Did he even know what Todd was asking? “That, I mean, that’s a concern … that’s an issue that society has got to deal with, and it is of concern.”

So.. "concern" and "deal".. got it.

Thanks, lapucelle

[lapucelle]

3. That right wing talking point is also racist.

As the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum points out, bans on sex-selective abortions are based in harmful myths about the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community. “Supporters of sex-selective abortion bans claim they are necessary because of Asians who migrate to the U.S. and bring ‘backward’ values with them,” reads a report from the organization. “This stereotype about the values of the AAPI community is not only ugly — it’s dangerous. These bans could lead to AAPI patients being singled out for special questioning and even being denied care.”

[Cha]

10. Yes, it's a vile, racist, stupid

rw talking point and should have been shut down immediately.. instead of all the hemming and hawing around it!

[Me.]

27. THat Cloud Says It All

love it.....

[Cha]

46. Yeah.

It's my "donut" smilie.

Alohahoa, Me

[NastyRiffraff]

6. IT'S NOT A CONCERN, BERNIE!

It's not a thing. Women don't have abortions for that reason, you muddle-headed ignoramus. It's only a concern to the right wing and Senators who don't know their asses from a yawning pit of ignorance.

I've lost all patience with Sanders.

[Cha]

7. I'm way past that, Riff!

You're right.. it's only a bogus rw gaslit concern.

[calimary]

33. So have I.

Enough!

[NYMinute]

4. He would not get elected to a school committee here

with that level of unpreparedness.

Running for POTUS? Jeebus

[Cha]

65. Ikr..

[NurseJackie]

5. It was a HUMILIATING moment for the BS campaign. Totally blew it!

[Blue_true]

8. Bernie has consistently done that.

When he is sitting down answering questions instead of lecturing a crowd from behind a podium, he falls flat. His basic grasp of a lot of issues that a President WILL have to deal with is abysmal.

[Cha]

11. Yes, just like at

#SheThePeople.

[NurseJackie]

13. Anyone who wants to be POTUS needs to be able to think on his/her feet and NOT RELY on scripts!!!

Anyone who wants to be POTUS needs to be able to think on his/her feet and NOT RELY on scripts!!!

The person that I vote for will be someone who has a deep understanding of the topics and issues that matter most to OUR COUNTRY and OUR CITIZENS. The candidate that I vote for will be able to speak clearly and knowledgeably on these subjects.

Personally I'm SICK TO DEATH of candidates who brush off questions that are important to me and who try to re-direct and lead their canned responses back to ONLY those things that are important to HIM (or her, but in this case, it's a him.)

I'm tired of stump speeches, and I'm tired of being told that women's issues (and race issues and immigrant issues and privacy issues....) aren't important enough to talk about, only to hear the well-rehearsed "millionaires and billionaires" speech... and "I attended the 'I-have-a-dream' speech" (or however it is that he manages to name-drop MLK).

NO MORE STUMP SPEECHES!!

[Cha]

30. Exactly! Thank You! We need

a leader who is knowledgeable on issues important to all.. not someone who doesn't come prepared.. and most importantly doesn't try to divide us with hollow accusations..

Bernie: ‘My Opponents’ Want Black, White, Gay, Latino or Women Candidates ‘Regardless of What They Stand For

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211722251

[ehrnst]

39. But isn't that what so many of his supporters adore about him - that he 'never changes?'

"Constant as the North Star" I have heard it put.

[NurseJackie]

40. Yep... always trying to make an obvious FLAW look like it's something to be admired.

Yep... always trying to make an obvious FLAW look like it's something to be admired. For example, the other thing that immediately comes to mind is how the BS campaign is boasting about being unionized. Seriously? Unions are typically needed to protect employees from the excesses and the abuses and the unfair or unethical practices of the employer. The fact that the BS campaign employees felt the need to be unionized is NOT something to brag about, yet they do. It's a total disconnect and fantasy world viewpoint and approach.

[Cha]

9. KICK!

[LibFarmer]

12. Bernie fumbled the abortion issue

like a rookie third-string quarterback....

[Cha]

14. This needs more attention..

Thank you, LF

[WhiskeyGrinder]

15. His lack of interest in preparing for the race indicates, to me, breathtaking arrogance.

[ehrnst]

37. He's criticized the Democratic party for their focus on abortion and gay marriage.

“These are guys getting hung up on gay marriage issues,” Sanders told Schultz. “They’re getting hung up on abortion issues. And it is time we started focusing on the economic issues that bring us together: Defending Social Security, defending Medicare, making sure that Medicaid is not cut, that veterans’ programs are not cut.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2013/10/bernie-sanders-tells-ed-schultz-southern-democrats-are-tired-of-being-abandoned-by-the-party/

[Eric J in MN]

16. This is hype. Bernie Sanders is completely pro-choice.

He supported abortion rights in that interview.

He has always advocated abortion rights in his presidential stump speech.

He talked about abortion rights in his presidential stump during the past week more than ever before.

[FreeBe]

17. He stated sex selection with abortion is a problem in our country.

[Eric J in MN]

18. And that he isn't advocating restrictions on it. NT

NT

[FreeBe]

19. It is not true.

[lapucelle]

20. BS called the sex selection canard a concern and an "issue that society has got to deal with".

Todd followed up by asking Sanders how he would “deal with that in the law?” Sanders replied, “I don’t know how, at this particular point. I would deal with it, but that is an issue we really have got to deal with.”

[FreeBe]

28. "but that is an issue we really have got to deal with." Really!

We really have to deal with something that is not true. How can it be played otherwise?

[lapucelle]

29. All BS had to say is "Fear mongering over sex selection abortion is both baseless

and culturally insensitive, if not downright racist, Chuck.

The right wing is trying to distract the American people from the really important issue, a woman's fundamental right to bodily autonomy and reproductive choice."

[lapucelle]

32. First, do you have a BS quote to support that claim?

Second, why doesn't BS know that abortion for the purpose of sex selection isn't even a "a thing"?

It belongs in the same category as "Allowing trans people to choose the bathroom of the gender they identify with is dangerous to other people using those restrooms".

[ehrnst]

35. If a politician had been asked what he would do about ISIS fighters sneaking in with the migrants

at the southern border, and he said he "Wouldn't close the border, but, I mean, that’s a concern … that’s an issue that society has got to deal with, and it is of concern,” would you have called that politician's immigration position liberal or Democratic, or perpetuating a GOP myth?

Or would you agree that they should have said, "That's a fallacy spread by the GOP and RW groups, so it's not an issue. Next question."

Bernie said the opposite of that about a RW fallacy about women who get abortion, and in a very status quo political sidestep to avoid revealing that he didn't know about the topic, he validated that RW fallacy.

"Well, I'm concerned with the issue that you say is concerning, and certainly we, as a society need to be concerned about it."

Would you give any other candidate a pass on that?

I highly doubt it.

But just a few seconds later, things went off the rails when Todd inexplicably asked, “Are you in all concerned, though, about this idea that people may try to worry about the sex of a child, or essentially, are those types of restrictions on abortions something you’re open to?”

Bernie, obviously caught off guard but also obviously uneducated on the issue, capitulated. “That, I mean, that’s a concern,” Sanders said, adding, “Well, that’s not a, I wouldn’t use a restriction on, that’s an issue that society has got to deal with, and it is of concern.”

Todd followed up to the question asking, “How would you deal with that in the law?”

“I don’t know how, at this particular point,” Sanders said. “I would deal with it, but that is an issue that we really have got to deal with.”

Sanders was clearly stumbling, but by acknowledging “that’s a concern” legitimizes Todd’s question, which is one designed to cloud the issue. Sex-selective abortion is a straw man argument and proponents of it in the United States are purely looking to restrict abortion through any means possible. It’s just another way to malign and police women’s motives when seeking an abortion.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/bernie-sanders-chuck-todd-terrible-takes-on-abortion-837317/

[FreeBe]

42. This is what Sanders accomplished with his poor comments.

I read another poster here state that Sanders answer was good, and it would be something that we would have to question as a society. Someone who is supposedly on our side, a Democrat bought into and now believes that women and girls are aborting due to sex. Something that has probably never come up in this posters mind now thinks that this is an issue and just one more person in the sea of voices we have to fight with a misperception. A falsehood.

Sanders did women harm. Sanders should have been informed his answer was poorly stated and not factual. A leader then should have stood up and put out a correction on his statement clearly saying that he got thrown by the question and clarify that sex selection is NOT happening in the U.S. That the question was RW.

So Sanders was so uninformed to not have a clue when he answered. But, he does not have the courage or respect for the issue and our women and girls to make the correction and try to undue the harm that he initially did with this comment.

[SouthernProgressive]

61. Doesn't he say it's a concern we need to deal with? NT

[lapucelle]

21. The woman journalist who wrote the piece is engaging in hype?

Hannah K. Gold
Freelance Writer
As seen in: The Guardian, Newsweek, Vice, VICE UK, Salon, Rolling Stone, Reader's Digest (U.S.), Gawker, The Intercept, The Nation, Jezebel, New York Magazine, and The Village Voice.

[Cha]

22. It's Never BS' fault that he can't

answer the question.. it's always those who report the news or ask the "Question".

[lapucelle]

24. Dang those lady reporters, always hyping this and hyping that.

[Cha]

25. Disgusting

accusation.

[ehrnst]

36. Since it was televised and not a newspaper journalist, his aide couldn't step in

and tell the journalist to stop asking him the question when he gets flustered.

God help anyone who fact checks him on this.

[Cha]

45. Thank goodness.. we need

to know who the candidates are.

[ehrnst]

34. It is on point. "Being pro-choice" and being informed on the issue of anti-choice legislation and

talking points is something else entirely.

We expect a candidate for POTUS to be both. We expect a Democratic POTUS, especially one who runs as a Pro-choice advocate, to be interested enough in it to know how reproductive rights are being attacked, and what RW talking points are front and center.

[ehrnst]

38. He has not always been a full advocate for what he considers "identity politics,"

because they are not "universal" - the label of which seems to be limited to those issues which directly affect white straight men, which can be solved economically.

“These are guys getting hung up on gay marriage issues,” Sanders told Schultz. “They’re getting hung up on abortion issues. And it is time we started focusing on the economic issues that bring us together: Defending Social Security, defending Medicare, making sure that Medicaid is not cut, that veterans’ programs are not cut.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2013/10/bernie-sanders-tells-ed-schultz-southern-democrats-are-tired-of-being-abandoned-by-the-party/

His response when HRC and Planned Parenthood endorsed Hillary Clinton was to dismiss their judgement, long history and credibility as activists by implying that they, as 'establishment groups' were going with the 'establishment' candidate.

And as I have been told many, many times by Sanders supporters, one of the things that they admire most about him is that he doesn't change. This is also evident when he doubles down and goes on the attack when fact checked and found to be less than 100% accurate in his claims.

And the dismissal of the valid criticism of this gaffe as "hype" shows that this trait is echoed by his supporters.

[FreeBe]

44. Along the lines of PP, there was the time PP was being attacked for a doctored video.

Big news before it came out the video was doctored. Sanders jumped into the issue before getting the information and full story, pointed his finger at Cecil Richardson and said her tone was bad and she did owe an apology. Hour, mere hours later it was shown the video was doctored and HRC came out strongly behind Richardson and PP. It took Sanders a lot longer to support PP. That was another instance where thru his lack of interest and knowledge harmed our issue.

[Cha]

59. That's not the point.

[oasis]

23. Unacceptable response.

[Me.]

26. Let's Face It

he's just so last century....he did a good job, last time around of hiding it. but I think the masquerade has become strained as it's very difficult to keep that sort of thing going.

[Partisan D]

31. In a time when we CANNOT be loosing the abortion debate...

...we get distracting nonsense like this. Sanders should have ignored his question and pivoted right to what's going on in Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, etc.

[Cha]

48. He should have

known what was being asked, and given the answer it deserved.. that it was rw propaganda.

[Maru Kitteh]

41. This response shows Bernie obviously lacks appropriate depth of knowledge on women's issues - Too

much "identity" politickin' for him.

Millionaires and Billionaires
Millionaires and Billionaires
Millionaires and Billionaires
Millionaires and Billionaires
Millionaires and Billionaires
Millionaires and Billionaires

It's a DISGRACE!

Millionaires and Billionaires
Millionaires and Billionaires
Millionaires and Billionaires
Millionaires and Billionaires



Not much time for women in there.

[Amimnoch]

43. K&K. Needs more exposure and constant repeating!

He is not qualified.

[Cha]

47. Absolutely Agree!

[NurseJackie]

49. The whole thing makes me furious. It's times like this that I say...

The whole thing makes me furious. It's times like this that I say... "thank heavens he's NOT a Democrat". What an embarrassment. It would be HUMILIATING for the party to literally have to claim him as one of our own.

In many regards it's infuriating that he and his supporters think that he's "entitled" to the Democratic nomination... and I've often complained that he needs to commit the the party, that he needs to be the "D" from Vermont, not the "I" from Vermont, but it's times like now that I'm glad he didn't listen to me.

[Cha]

50. He's not "entitled" to

not answer important questions that effect WOC and Women in general. He should study what's going before he does any of those rallies.

[NurseJackie]

52. The American people deserve to have a president who's prepared...

... and doesn't revert to "stump speeches" or name-dropping MLK in order avoid the subject.

By the way, I fucking hate name-dropping. People who do such things (no matter who he or she may be) are relying on someone ELSE'S reputation to try and lift their own. It's pathetic.

[Cha]

55. It's so karmic that

the WOC @#SheThePeople weren't having his name dropping one second longer!

[NurseJackie]

60. I think that name-dropping is a disgusting "crutch" whenever someone has very little to offer...

I think that name-dropping is a disgusting "crutch" whenever someone has very little to offer. In my own personal experience, the name-droppers have always been loudmouths and blowhards who lack any real accomplishments of their own. They're riding on someone else's coattails, or relying on someone else's wealth... yet they feel that the namedropping gives them a leg-up on the competition and that everyone around them should be impressed.

All I'm saying is, I was never impressed with namedroppers, and whenever I was around a colleague who did that (or when acquaintances in my social circle did that) I'd always roll my eyes and try hard to suppress an audible groan, or laughter.

But... as we saw with the attendees at the She The People conference... it wasn't very easy for everyone in that crowd to suppress their own audible groans, sighs, chuckling and laughter when BS lacked any substantive response and felt the need to namedrop MLK (yet again!) ... but they weren't having any of it. They understood and saw it for the crutch that it was.

[Raven123]

51. Why did Todd ask that specific question?

[lapucelle]

54. Probably to get an answer to that specific question.

[Raven123]

56. Why? Has Bernie previously spoken on that particular circumstance previously?

I guess am not a Chuck Todd fan. Didn’t see the interview so I thought there was some history I missed.

[lapucelle]

57. That particular concern is a right wing, anti choice talking point. N/T

[Raven123]

58. Thank you for filling in the blank for me.

[Cha]

68. Thank you again for your

OP, lapucelle

[SouthernProgressive]

62. Supreme Court Won't Reinstate Indiana Ban on Abortion for Sex Selection

https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-wont-reinstate-indiana-ban-on-abortion-for-sex-selection-11559053382

[Autumn]

53. What the Hell Happened? Nothing but out of context gotcha bullshit. Nothing wrong

with what he said. I would have been upset had he said that Roe v. Wade — the U.S. Supreme Court case that protects a pregnant woman's freedom to choose whether to have an abortion — went too far. But Bernie Sanders didn't say that.

[SouthernProgressive]

63. It was a slow ball hung out over the plate.

For Sanders it is a concern that needs to be dealt with.

[FreeBe]

64. Sanders basically confirmed women are sex selecting when getting an abortion.

My question is, why does that not bother you?

[Maru Kitteh]

66. Ya don't know? Really? I believe it. Just stop with "I don't know" Mr. Sanders, because

"that is an issue we really have to deal with" is just so canned and pathetic.

Ya don't know. Got it.

[Cha]

67. KICK!