Transcripts For CSPAN Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20240622 : c

Edited their film or not, what these two people have said is disgusting, immoral. My last point is, nancy pelosi i wish the Catholic Church would ask at excommunicate this woman. How can she possibly call herself a catholic and kill gods creations . We want to vilify the filmmakers . She said that they were reprimanded the woman in the first one. What does that mean . When they reprimand people in the government, they usually get a pay raise, a host we are going to leave it there and get a response from our guest. Guest comments that we just heard from this caller really represent what a lot of people across the country have felt watching this video. Planned parenthood has a knowledge that the tone and statements of their officials they do not represent the mission of the organization. That is part of what the president said in her statement. Immediately following the release of this video, they are concerned about the tone. As the caller mentioned, some of the details about this meeting sit with wine, bites of salad between the conversation, it does look very disturbing and bad for planned parenthood. This is raising a lot of concerns. That is why so many people across the country are aware of this and are paying attention and demanding answers. Theres a lot of calls coming into capitol hill about this issue. Host how prevalent are the lobbying efforts on capitol hill by planned parenthood and by the antiabortion people . Guest these are two of the most entrenched camps that exist on capitol hill. These have been decades in the making. The antiabortion groups, they are frequently lobbying the hill. There is a lot of work done every year to organize the right for life, organize a lot of the bills that are coming up to ban lateterm abortion. These groups are very active. They are in conversations constantly with the republicandemocratic counterparts. We are seeing that attention really ramp up. Groups think the momentum is here to pass the legislation that they really wanted, and land parenthood is out there talking to democratic offices as well trying to explain these videos and help some of the democrats who have supported them in the past, help them be able to explain the videos. Host robert, colton California Independent line. Caller good morning. I just wanted to bring up a couple of points. I am prochoice because i had a sister i have a sister who had lupus and pregnancy could kill her. Anytime you have an industry like this that is dealing with something, as your guest is saying, that involves a lot of complexity, your average public will be very emotionally charged. When you are in that industry, it does not really help you do your job to be emotionally charged about it every day. It kind of goes back to when there was body stealing from universities back in the 1800s and stuff. People were very upset about it but at the end of the day, we needed that as a nation to advance our scientific research. We cannot just not do research because your average citizen is going to be emotionally charged about the issue. A soldier is going to talk about shooting somebody between the eyes and we are not going to, he is not going to be upset about it. It is kind of the same deal where, to do the job you are required to do you need to have an even keel and do it kind of matter of fact. Guest as the caller is pointing out, this is obviously very emotionally charged. This is something that is very uncomfortable to talk about. Fetal tissues is not a dinnertable conversation and not a conversation that members of Congress Want to talk about even if they are in the congressional prochoice caucus. Some parts of science and medical research are uncomfortable. They are not comfortable to talk about, but these are potentially lifesaving procedures. They are leading to cures across the country as planned parenthood has said, and as Major Medical groups has said, it is important to have this fetal tissue available. It does bring up a very uncomfortable issue, and these videos, the tone, it is damaging for the group. Host ladylike tweets in will democrats saying these videos are illegal also pursue action against the person who secretly taped romneys 47 speech . Caller i am just calling to say i support planned parenthood because a lot of people call in this morning saying it is all wrong. I think war is wrong. I think eating animals is wrong. So to me, i find it totally hypocritical. You are going to have a problem you do not have a problem eating that steak or pig. If you are going to be prolife, be prolife pictures. A woman cannot consider herself totally free if she cannot control her own body. I listen to these callers telling me it is all wrong. I am prochoice and i think whatever woman whatever a woman does to her body is her business. Nobody is going to take care of the baby. You do not know what anyones financial situation is. The people who put the video out are just dishonest. I realized people who put out these video was totally dishonest and they wanted to make planned parenthood go down. They have been doing extremely good things for women so that is my comment for this morning. Guest the comments that we just heard, specifically about the caller going in and looking up the group kind of video after watching it, that is what a lot of people who support planned parenthood have to do because when you first watch these videos, it is appalling, some of the statements that are made. When you watch the full video, there is other important context that can be brought up so there are a lot of people who are urging the public, the American Public to go and watch the whole version of this video. We are hearing comments said from planned parenthood supporters across capitol hill that this is an important Public Health Public Health institution. There Community Health centers run by planned parenthood across the country and they do provide services such as mammograms. There is still robust support for planned parenthood in light of some of these more damaging videos. Host floyd is in jonesville, virginia, on our republican line. Caller good morning, peter, sarah. I heard the guy call in a while ago and he said there were 70 million debt 70 million babies. It is premeditated murder to me. The way to ban it, to stop it is to ban the democrats. They are talking about the guns, look at how many babies is being killed . You go out and vote. Mike huckabee, the best one against abortion. He is wanting to put term limits on the supreme court, term limits on congress. Lets put a stop to all of this stuff. If they would go to the polls and then the democrats, a lot of this stuff would stop. This is murder, premeditated murder. I do not see how anybody who claims to be a christian could vote for a democrat. Host any comment for floyd . Guest what we are just hearing from the caller, talking about the 2016 election, and this has definitely waded into that. We are seeing two senators running for president , ted cruz and rand paul are both immediately coming out and saying we need to defund this group. Ben carson will be leading a rally on capitol hill next week joined by some of the republicans in congress who are very vocal on this issue. Nearly every republican running in 2016 has come out and said that these videos demand investigations or defunding of the group. This is definitely becoming an issue. Host i know you Cover Health Care and not necessarily politics. The fact that senator boehner did not dismiss funding right out, did that say anything . Guest he showed it has and it showed he has a more cautious approach to this issue. Speaker boehner himself said but we did not hear that same tone when he described funding the group. He said we need the facts first. He is not hesitant to talk about the issue. He answered two questions yesterday but he is not immediately saying, we are going to have a vote next week and make as part of the appropriations process. It is clear that he is ready for more information on this and he knows this could be damaging for republicans. Host chris in bama tweets in the videos only crime is they described a perceived or in a callous way that offends the sensibilities of many. Jenny, you are on the washington journal with sarah ferris. Caller thank you for taking my call. I have a comment. I would just like to tell a little story. I have a daughter who became pregnant about eight years ago in very bad circumstances. No money, no job, no husband. She could have had an abortion but she did not. Instead, she had a baby, a little boy. And now i have a beautiful smart, funny happy, precious little grandson. I would just like to say that i think god every day that his body was not turned into parts for sale. And that is all i have to say. Thank you. Host this is an indelicate question, but who owns the fetus once an abortion happens . Is it the mother . Guest that is a difficult question. A lot of these procedures, they raise important ethical questions that could be answered differently depending on the woman, depending on the doctor, depending on where she has lived, where she has been raised, what her personal views are. This is something that the government is regulating. It is not something that under law there are these answers. The controversy is really drawing the attention of so many people because these are not easily answered questions. You talk about this in the realm of science and research, but then there are also very deeply held beliefs on this which make it difficult to really talk about what is next from here and what should be the case under law. Host beth, evanston, illinois, democrat. Caller i would first like to comment that some of the reasons are missed information and not understanding the issue is showing short snippets of even a shortened video. The video you showed today, i think it can be kind of damaging to planned parenthood because i think the version went on to say that money was used for packaging and sending the fetal tissue. But i wanted to ask, has there been other controversy in the history of using fetal tissue before as a moral issue in past years . I wanted to know if the reporter you have on knows anything about that. Guest the issue of fetal tissue donation, that is something that is not commonly discussed by either the prochoice movement or the prolife movement. Definitely because this is such an uncomfortable topic to discuss. This has been the center of the video that has just been released, and there have been plenty more of these undercover videos that have been targeting planned parenthood before. This is something we are definitely seeing. It is not something that congress has talked about, held hearings about in recent memory. This is a pretty new issue which is why you will see a lot of democrats struggling to talk about it and struggling to find a way to say, we support that this is legal but we do not want to hear these officials describing it in this way. You mentioned video that would that was shown. It is important to see some of the remarks made by planned parenthood officials because you can see how it has been riling a lot of the viewers that have seen it. If you watch the full video, or is important context that is shown in the rest of the footage here. Host yolanda, dance field, ohio, republican line. Caller it makes me uncomfortable how she keeps saying the film. You do not see the rest of it. We see enough. These words shock to me i wish she would talk about the history of the founders of planned parenthood. Tell people about margaret singer, how they were too many immigrants and blacks having babies. That is where it really started, and they are babies. It makes me so uncomfortable. It is an uncomfortable topic because they are babies. Do not call them it all the time. I have sorry my country has come to this. Host that is yolanda. Guest what we are hearing from the caller is really representational of what a lot of people are thinking about this issue. There are very upset by the way democrats and others who support abortion rights are describing this issue. It reflects these deeply held views that have been in place even before roe v wade, before the founding of planned parenthood. It shows how difficult it is for politicians to make any progress on making sure that groups like planned parenthood are following the law because every time these issues are raised, it really drives it is a political discussion about whether this should be legal, what people believe in their core. It takes away from some of the questions about, how do we make sure that these groups are following Legal Practices . Host sarah ferris, what is going to happen next with regard you talked about potential hearings, or Speaker Boehner referenced potential hearings. When do you expect those to happen . Guest we are running out of time for those to happen before the august recess so it is more likely that september is when we will start hearing about this again. That is when the budget will be front and center so i think we can expect planned parenthood to become part of that funding fight, and we are going to hear republicans try to defund planned parenthood. John boehner yesterday said that he expects, he does not think the president will veto this massive budget, even if it does contain cuts to planned parenthood because it is just such a big and important no. They are already seeing openings to get some of their longsought attacks against planned parenthood into the budget. We are definitely going to see this in the fall. Host is the mood from some members Strong Enough that this could lead to a potential Government Shutdown over funding planned parenthood . Guest a lot of republicans have dismissed the idea that this could lead to that saying it is silly that republicans believe so strongly that they have the upper hand. I think the mood on capitol hill is definitely, you talk to members about this and democrats will immediately say they think the video is edited and does not show what planned parenthood is actually doing. But republicans are clearly riled by this and will not be letting it go anytime soon. A lot of them are demanding more action from Speaker Boehner. Host talking about this issue is a minefield at all times, isnt it . Guest it really is. This is one of those issues that you are rarely in the middle. For people who believe one way they likely grew up that way. These are positions they have held for a long time. A lot of times it involves their religion, so people are not this is not one of those compromise kind of issues. Social issues are always very difficult and abortion is one of the, you can see it on the campaign trail every time this is brought up. It does bring voters to the polls but that is because people feel so strongly about it. Host sarah the house and Senate Efforts to pass legislation on energy. We will take your calls and you can follow the conversation on facebook and twitter. This weekend on the cspan network, politics, books, and american history. Saturday morning, starting at 9 45, the governors address the opioid crisis. Later, they discuss how to stimulate the economy and the impact on the employment rate. Sunday at six 35, an interview with former governor of rhode island and president ial candidate lincoln chafee. At 10 00 eastern on book tv, ralph nader on the unanswered letters he sent to residents toward bush and to president s george bush and barack obama. Hurricane katrina 10 years later. And we commemorate the 50th anniversary of president Lyndon Johnsons signing of the medicare bill. How the president was able to get the bill passed, phone conversations between johnson and his aides, and the setting of the bill at the Harry S Truman president ial library. Saturday night u. S. Army Cyber Command historian Lawrence Kaplan on the history of computers, hackers, and the governments response to computer abuses. The complete schedule at cspan. Org. The National Governors Association Began its annual meeting. That is next to readt. Later, Hillary Clinton talks about Economic Policy at new york university. The National Governors Association Began their annual summer meeting in white sulfur springs, West Virginia. The association currently led by colorado governor gary hickenlooper. This is 45 minutes. Good morning, everyone, and let me be the first to welcome you to West Virginia. We are honored to be the host state for the National Governors Association Summer meeting which has brought together governors and their families from all over the country. Sit down with one another and discuss a number of crucial policies on a wide range of issues important to all our states, and i am confident our meeting will open pathways for new ideas. While in West Virginia, i hope you experience all that is wild and wonderful about the mountain state. Our team has worked hard to put together a number of Exciting Events all attendees to ensure that not only we showcase our history, but share true and authentic West Virginia culture and hospitality. We hope you enjoy your stay here. Welcome to West Virginia. I look forward to another successful nga summer meeting. It is my pleasure to introduce Governor John Hickenlooper of colorado. Governor . [applause] governor hickenlooper thank you. He has been practicing on my name. It is a delight to kick off the summer meeting of the National Governors association. I want to recognize and thank governor tomlin for having sited this conference, and we do look forward to experience everything that West Virginia has to offer. So thank you. Please give him a hand. [applause] governor hickenlooper i am delighted to recognize my friend from utah, gary herbert. Gary and i have worked on initiatives for nga and other govern