Saturday, December 5, 2015

Fack-Checking the GOP: Fiorina - When the Facts Don't Fit, Fudge 'Em

The Statement:

Last Sunday, Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace spoke with Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina about the fatal shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs just days before.  He asked her to respond to some pro-choice advocates who have said that "language like yours has incited violence" against Planned Parenthood.

"(T)his is so typical of the left to immediately begin demonizing the messenger, because they don't agree with the message.  The vast majority of Americans agree, what Planned Parenthood is doing is wrong.  That's why the vast majority of Americans are prepared not only to defund Planned Parenthood, but also to stop abortion for any reason at all after five months."

The Facts:

1 - August 29, 2015, a Reuters/Ipsos poll: 54% of Americans supported federal funding of Planned Parenthood; 26% were opposed.  

2 - September 17-21, 2015, a Quinnipiac University National Poll: 52 percent supported funding, 41 percent opposed

3 - September 20-24, 2015, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll: 61% supported funding, 35% opposed.

4 -September 22-27, a Pew Research Center poll: 60% supported funding, 32% opposed. 

5 - September 23-27, 2015, a New York Times/CBS poll: 55% supported funding, 36% opposed.

6 - September 24-28, 2015, a USA Today/Suffolk University poll, 65 percent supported funding, 20 percent opposed.

7 - October 14, 2015, a Gallup poll found that 59% of Americans viewed Planned Parenthood favoribly.

Fact Check's Eugene Kiely asked Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette University Law School Poll and co-founder of Pollster, (now part of Huffington Post), who currently provides nonpartisan analysis of polling data through Polls and Votes providing nonpartisan analysis of polling data if he "knew of any national polls that supported Fiorina's claim."  

"I am not aware of a national poll by a reputable  pollster that has shown a majority for defunding.  Rather the opposite," he replied.

m'eye Verdict

I sure don't see any evidence of a "vast majority of Americans" clambering for cutting funding to Planned Parenthood, certainly not in these seven examples.  She may have a point when it comes to late term abortion, but the type of abortion that is totally legal in the United States of America?  No.

Perhaps she misspoke and meant a vast majority of conservative, evangelical Republicans would like to see PP defunded; but that is hardly the same thing. It's also totally irrelevant, since there is no evidence that Ms. Fiorina said anything other than exactly what she meant.  

For making up and continuing to disseminate blatant falsehoods in an effort to bolster public belief in her own opinion, Carly Fiorina earns 5 out of 5 Gops.  I'll nip a corner off the fifth one for the probability of her being correct about the amount of opposition to late term abortion.


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