Barbara Boxer blames ‘painful rhetoric’ of pro-lifers for shooting, connected to these ‘hate crimes’
On MSNBC’s MTP Daily, California Sen. Barbara Boxer drew a line connecting pro-life rhetoric with Friday’s fatal shooting near a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood abortion clinic by Robert Dear.
Guest host Steve Kornacki asked the liberal Democrat if she saw a connection between the outrage at the country’s largest abortion provider and this vicious attack.
BOXER: “But instead, they use this painful rhetoric. Yes, I think there is a connection between when you say somebody is killing a baby, and you go into all of that, and harvesting the parts from babies, this rhetoric is hurtful to the doctors, to the nurses, to the patients.
Robert Lewis Dear wasn’t named when Barbara Boxer placed blame for the Colorado shooting near a Planned Parenthood clinic
KORNACKI: Do you believe that the Republican rhetoric on Planned Parenthood is partly responsible for what happened?
BOXER: I would say this. I don’t know whether it is true that this killer, who had a lot of other issues, said something about selling body parts. So I’ll withhold on that. But I will say, we have seen deaths of doctors. We have seen harassment. I think Rachel Maddow goes into it in great detail. She’s the one person that really takes a look at this. And, yes, I think there is a connection between these horrible hate crimes and what people say.
People in leadership, who have a lot of credibility, who say things that were on videotapes, that weren’t on videotapes, I think it makes a difference, and it creates a terrible atmosphere.
And I would call on Paul Ryan and I did, soon as this happened, to disband this committee. It’s costing millions of dollars, or hundreds of thousands anyway. And we don’t need another committee. And we don’t need another witch-hunt.
You know, Cecile Richards stayed, I think it was four or five hours, and got harangued by all these questions and there was nothing even remotely illegal or in any way against what the law says. So, yeah, they ought to stop it. They really ought to stop it.
KORNACKI: Alright, Barbara Boxer, senator from California. Thank you for the time.
