WASHINGTON, D.C., August 16, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Cable news commentator and D.C. talking head David Gergen accused the pro-life movement of engaging in the “dehumanization” and murder of abortionists last week on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”
Gergen, a senior political analyst, has served four U.S. presidents – Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton.
The centrist D.C. figure was asked about Donald Trump’s remarks that “Second Amendment people” might be able to preserve the right to keep and bear arms if Hillary Clinton is elected president – something the Clinton campaign portrayed as a death threat and Trump dismissed as a plea for political unity.
“Others have made the point,” Gergen said. “This is the kind of dehumanization that we've seen before people pick up guns and go shoot people at abortion clinics.”
“That can happen in politics, too,” Gergen said, calling Donald Trump’s statement “a dog whistle to crazies out there.”
“There are crazies out there with guns, and if you just give them the excuse or the incitement terrible things can happen,” he said.
Other examples of allegedly dehumanizing rhetoric, according to Gergen, include “calling her a criminal, the ‘Crooked Hillary,’ and having all these chants, as late as the rally yesterday about ‘lock her up, lock her up.’“
Delegates supporting Senator Bernie Sanders chanted “lock her up” at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia late last month after hacked e-mails proved collusion between the DNC and the Clinton campaign.
Pro-life leaders note that their entire movement is dedicated to humanizing every human being from the moment of conception to natural death.
Dr. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, wrote, “Protecting unborn babies is not about punishing women, but punishing an industry and a culture that dehumanizes human beings.”
On the other hand, NARAL Pro-Choice America blasted a Doritos ad featuring an ultrasound image, which aired during this year’s Super Bowl, for “humanizing fetuses.”
Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood clinic manager, often points out that the abortion industry workers her ministry helps find new work are normal people, often hurting people, just like her. “Helping you to heal helps us. Healing doesn’t come overnight, over a few weeks or months, or even years,” she notes. “We’re with you long-term throughout this process.”
The first abortion facility shooting in years took place last November at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood. The gunman, Robert Lewis Dear Jr., had no connection to the pro-life movement, his action was condemned by the nation’s pro-life leaders, and he was ruled unfit to stand trial due to mentally incompetence. A Colorado judge reaffirmed that ruling this morning.
It’s unclear how seriously the nation’s authorities are taking Mr. Trump’s rhetoric. Gergen referenced a CNN report that “the Secret Service has now warned the Trump campaign” over his rhetoric.
However, a Secret Service official denied that any such discussions had taken place.
“No such meeting or conversation ever happened,” Donald Trump tweeted, ascribing the story to media bias designed to tip the election in favor of Hillary Clinton.
Transcript:
David Gergen: I must have really taken aback. I — what you reported at the top of the show, Jake, I think is so important, and that is that the Secret Service has now warned the Trump campaign on more than one occasion since this, these comments about the dangers represented by the rhetoric. That settles the question, it seems to me, that the Secret Service has stepped in, settles the question of whether we should take this seriously or not. That it was open to the interpretation like a dog whistle to crazies out there that maybe you ought to pick up a gun and settle this once and for all. And it comes into context so important to this.
I think that people in the press would be much more willing to give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt had there not been this long string of comments in this campaign pervaded with aspects of violence. He wants to punch people in the nose, he talks about going out and being shot on Fifth Avenue, that won't matter — if he shoots somebody on Fifth Avenue, that he'd like to take somebody out. Calling her a criminal, the “Crooked Hillary”, and having all these chants, as late as the rally yesterday about “lock her up, lock her up.” Tom Friedman I thought made an excellent point today in The New York Times, that's what we saw, the kind of context we saw before the assassination of [Former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin. Others have made the point, this is the kind of dehumanization that we've seen before people pick up guns and go shoot people at abortion clinics. That can happen in politics, too. We've all lived through this before, and we know how there are crazies out there with guns, and if you just give them the excuse or the incitement terrible things can happen. So I think it's appropriate that Donald Trump has been condemned on this, and I also think his campaign is now in crisis.
