White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked several times at Thursday’s daily press briefing whether the pro-life movement should be considered “extremist” or “semi-fascist” — and she did not deny that President Joe Biden views it as such.
Jean-Pierre fielded questions ahead of Biden’s prime time address about the “attack on our democracy,” after Biden referred earlier to support for Donald Trump as “semi-fascism” and the White House backed his attacks on “MAGA Republicans” as “extremists.”
On Wednesday, Jean-Pierre defended the Biden administration’s rhetoric, accusing Republicans of attacking “fundamental right” such as the right to abortion. A reporter asked Jean-Pierre Thursday if the administration saw the pro-life movement as fascist.
She responded that the Republican position on abortion was “not in line with the were majority of Americans,” and that the pro-life view was an “extreme agenda” that meant “taking away” rights and freedoms. The rights of an unborn child were not mentioned.)
The reporter followed up, pointing out that the Supreme Court had recently said that abortion is an issue to be decided democratically in state legislatures. Would it be extremist or semi-fascist for Americans to do so, working through a “state legislature or Congress”?
Jean-Pierre replied that the laws Republicans were considering, such as a national ban on abortion, or banning abortion even in cases of rape and incest, were “extreme.” She also defined “extremism” as a state of being in disagreement with the political majority.
As Breitbart News has noted, pro-choice groups have carried out violent attacks against churches, pregnancy crisis centers, and pro-life organizations during what they have called a “summer of rage” since the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in June.
While the White House has condemned violence in a general sense, it has encouraged unlawful protests outside the homes of Supreme Court justices, and Democrats have encouraged pro-choice activists as part of mobilization for the November election.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.