Thursday on FNC’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” host Tucker Carlson took a dig at CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin for his pro-abortion defense in the wake of the Texas legislature’s thus far successful efforts to limit the practice of abortion in the high court.
Carlson reminded viewers of a personal situation Toobin encounter involving a woman he allegedly impregnated during an extramarital affair.
Transcript as follows:
CARLSON: Here’s an interesting observation/theory: The slogans that yell the loudest are the ones they believe the least. We’ve been noticing that recently. Volume is inversely proportional to sincerity. Maybe you scream it because you don’t really believe it.
Why do we think this? Well, here’s why. The very same people who have told us for decades now that it is my body my choice and seemed to mean it when they said it, those same people abandoned their own argument immediately when COVID arrived.
Suddenly, on a dime, they turned and they were demanding that we wear the mask and get the shot, but these were not optional suggestions, they weren’t deeply personal decisions to be made according to the dictates of individual conscience after consulting with family physicians and clergy, they weren’t between you, your doctor, and God. No, not at all. These were mandates.
Al of a sudden, Democrats were arguing that actually, politicians do get to decide what you do with your body. It’s their choice not yours. Inject these powerful drugs whether you want to or not because we own you.
Now, whatever else that is, that is not a pro-choice position to put it mildly. So, as we watch this happen, we wondered, what are these people going to say the next time so-called abortion rights get challenged in court? And now we know the answer, because last night, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on a new abortion law in the State of Texas. That decision came down by the way five to four, that’s the exact split the decided Roe v. Wade almost 50 years ago. So, it’s good enough to have meaning.
This time, the court upheld a Texas law that effectively bans abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, typically that’s about six weeks into a pregnancy. Now, this new law does not allow the government of Texas to enforce the ban, so no one is going to jail over abortion; instead, the new law let citizens sue clinics that commit illegal abortions.
So no matter how you feel about abortion, it is kind of hard to argue this is an especially radical law. Intentionally stopping a person’s heart from beating is the definition of killing. Government has a right to regulate that. In fact, deciding when it’s okay to kill a person is on the most basic level the whole reason to have laws in the first place.
So whether it’s right or wrong or whether you like it or not, it’s not a crazy statute. It did, however, drive the media crazy. Here is CBS quote “news” last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NORAH O’DONNELL, CBS NEWS ANCHOR: It is nearly impossible to get an abortion in Texas. The most restrictive abortion law in the country went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to act on a request to block it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): Abortion providers say Texas has essentially outlawed 85 percent of abortion procedures, which will force many clinics to close.
Amy Hagstrom Miller runs four clinics providing abortion services and is one of the plaintiffs asking the Supreme Court to intervene.
AMY HAGSTROM MILLER, FOUNDER, WHOLE WOMAN’S HEALTH: It is heartbreaking to deny them the care that our staff are fully trained and ready to provide. So really most people are going to be forced to carry a pregnancy against their will.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice over): The law signed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott bans abortion once a so-called fetal heartbeat is detected, usually around six weeks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: How is an abortion service different from abortion? Why not just call it what it is. But here’s the best line from CBS, “a so-called fetal heartbeat.” Imagine saying something like that out loud.
Once they’ve decided you should die, they won’t even admit you have a heartbeat. Do the very worst people in this country go into journalism or does it just seem that way?
Anyway, you’ll notice that CBS does not make a case for abortion. No. They didn’t tell you why it’s so important to stop fetal hearts from beating. They just asserted that it is.
What they didn’t do is say a single word of how this violates your physical autonomy, about how it’s your body your choice. They can’t say that now. They are for mandating vaccines and masks.
So in that way over at CBS, they are still a little bit smarter than the protesters you’re seeing on your screen right now. These are the people who gathered outside the Texas State Capitol in Austin today. You’ll notice that many of them are holding signs affirming their physical autonomy. You can’t tell them what to do with their bodies. Politicians, hands off my body.
But wait a second, at the very same moment they’re declaring their physical autonomy, they are wearing their little obedience masks and you can bet money all of them are vaccinated. Why? Because they were told to get the shot, so of course they obeyed.
They don’t see the irony here. On the other hand, how could they see it?
So few sane people are left with big platforms in this country that you almost never hear a sensible logical rational argument about anything.
Just hours ago, for example, the ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union released this statement and we’re quoting, “Far from compromising them, vaccine mandates actually further civil liberties.” You have more civil liberties when they control your body. You can just imagine the 1860s version, far from compromising civil liberties, slavery actually enhances personal freedom.
It’s not even Orwellian at this point, it’s post-Orwell. This is uncharted.
Things are changing so fast that a lot of people on the left are having trouble keeping up with the shifting justifications for the policies they want. Poor Jen Psaki. Never a genius to begin with, unintentionally blew herself up today at the White House press briefing. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
QUESTION: Why does the President support abortion when his own Catholic faith teaches abortion is morally wrong?
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, he believes that it’s a woman’s right, it’s a woman’s body, and it’s her choice.
QUESTION: Why does the President — who does he believe then should look out for the unborn child?
PSAKI: He believes that it’s up to a woman to make those decisions and up to a woman to make those decisions with her doctor. I know you’ve never faced those choices nor have you ever been pregnant, but for women out there who have faced those choices, this is an incredibly difficult thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Oh, getting the sophomore year Gender Studies lecture from Jen Saki. Here at Wesleyan, Mr. Man, men don’t get to talk about abortion. Have you ever been pregnant before? I don’t think so. You can’t get pregnant because you’re a man. So, abortion is a women’s issue. Shut up.
They’ve been saying that for so long they forgot to update the talking points. You think Jen Psaki when she does this for a living, she should know that men get pregnant now. The science people tell us that every day. Men get pregnant. It’s on the cover of magazines. I think it’s on the cover of “People” Magazine right now, a dude who is pregnant.
Now, what does that mean? It means that abortion is now a men’s issue. Men are child bearers, so men, dudes, have an equal right to choose to terminate their pregnancies and they have a right to weigh in on the policy itself. It’s not a women’s issue anymore, Jen Psaki.
She may get an outrage call from Congresswoman Cori Bush of St. Louis who was on this early. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. CORI BUSH (D-MO): I sit before you today as a single mom, as a nurse, as an activist, and as a congresswoman and I am committed to doing the absolute most to protect black mothers, to protect black babies, to protect black birthing people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: See, Cori Bush is on this. Maybe she should be White House Press Secretary. She knows it’s not a woman’s choice, it’s a birthing people choice.
So how is it an attack on women to ban abortion in Texas? That’s a tough one. They are not really sure. So in MSNBC, they’re not even trying to explain, they just want you to know that if you’re for this law in Texas, you’re the Taliban.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANK SCHAEFFER, AUTHOR: And we have a situation in Texas right now tonight where the American Taliban — because that’s what it is. This is not an American evangelical right-wing movement, there is an American Taliban is weirdly similar in so many ways to the Middle Eastern Islamist terrorists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: You just feel so sorry for these people. America is again changing so fast that like people over 16 who are on TikTok half the day just can’t keep up. There was a time like two weeks ago when the Taliban were bad before they were a critical member of the international community who are talking daily with the Secretary of State the National Security adviser and waiting for their American aid.
The American Taliban? No that’s different. Unfortunately, unlike the Pashtun Taliban, no one in Texas is getting tens of billions in free weapons from Joe Biden. The National Rifle Association is getting Blackhawks or 360,000 AR-15s, so it’s a little different actually to be the American Taliban, but the Taliban is still bad? No, they’re good. We need to update our talking points.
But still, this MSNBC anchor, the most fiery in their lineup wants you to know that if you tell people what to do with their bodies, you’re a bad person unless you’re Tony Fauci, in which case you’re America’s doctor and a hero.
The whole thing she said reminds her of that book she once read, maybe the only book she’s read. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOY REID, MSNBC HOST: By next summer, we could be living in our own version of the Handmaid’s Tale where forced birth is the law in large sections of the country.
You know and Senator Warren, you know people think it’s hyperbolic when I tweet about the Handmaid’s Tale coming to America, but I don’t think it seems hyperbolic now. Does it to you?
SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: It’s like — it’s like the greatest question ever asked, Elizabeth Warren, does this seem hyperbolic to you? Is there anything you can say to Elizabeth Warren where she might reply, “Well, that seems hyperbolic.” You’re going too far there. Slow down a little bit. Reign in your rhetoric.
But when MSNBC trots out Elizabeth Warren, it doesn’t matter what she says. The point is, she is there. This is a serious moment.
CNN had to top it and they did. They went farther even than MSNBC.
To assess yesterday’s court decision on abortion, CNN found a man with personal experience. That would be Jeffrey Toobin. Now, Toobin is most famous for masturbating on Zoom. That will define his obit, unfortunately.
There may not be room for a much more relevant fact which is Jeffrey Toobin once impregnated a co-worker’s daughter and then pressured her to get an abortion. He knows this topic cold. Now, she refused, but in the process of pushing her to get an abortion unsuccessfully, Jeffrey Toobin learned what a lot of crappy men have learned over the years, which is, this is a great option if you’re a married guy who doesn’t want to pay for more kids with random women.
So Jeffrey Toobin means it when he tells you it’s bad to ban it. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Today is the first day that a state could legally ban abortion.
And Roe v. Wade essentially does not exist at least in the State of Texas and probably more states to come.
Texas has banned abortion in the state and the Supreme Court has done nothing about it. That is immensely significant, mostly for the women of Texas, 29 million people in total live in Texas.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: What does that mean for Roe v. Wade? I said it could effectively end Roe v. Wade. Was that an overstatement?
TOOBIN: I don’t think so.
The point of Roe v. Wade is that states cannot ban abortion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: “It’s immensely significant for the women,” he mansplains. They’ve been telling you that for a long time when the truth is every person who lives here knows abortion is the best deal for the men who impregnate say the daughters of their coworkers because it allows them to skate without having to deal with the consequences.
Abortion makes actual women the ones who until recently were having all the babies before dudes could get pregnant, it makes them feel pretty bad about it. If you ask women, how do you feel about the abortion again? Not many feel that great about it, at all.
People like Jeffrey Toobin feel fine, so it’s his prerogative he is defending, but whatever. There he is lecturing us about Roe v. Wade, the sacred five to four ruling that invented the right to abortion. Out of nothing.
Now, here you have a duly elected state legislature right now in 2021 contradicting the five unelected judges who concocted the right to abortion back in 1973 and Jeffrey Toobin is suggesting that’s an attack on democracy. When elected people contravene the judgment of unelected people who died decades ago, that’s what they’re telling you. These people can’t even hear themselves.
But millions of normal Americans do recognize this moment for what it is. It’s proof that democracy does still exist, voters can decide what they want for their communities, their states, their towns and that courts will at least potentially respect that right. It’s called self-government.
The legislature in Texas has realized this for months now. They’ve passed laws banning vaccine passports, homeless encampments, racist struggle sessions in schools, laws that block protests that prevent emergency vehicles from riding down the road et cetera et cetera. Laws specific to Texas that the people of Texas want and a lot of those laws are still on the books.
So, that’s not a bad thing. How is that a bad thing? Why should Texas have to be exactly like California? The problem is, if that kind of thinking goes national, it gravely disempowers the people at CNN and the so-called civil rights organizations that think they are in control of everything.
On the other hand, it might actually save Civil Rights for the rest of us and that might be a good thing.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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