Evasion Examples: 2013

EXAMPLES AND ANALYSIS: 2013 Evasions

THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Madam Leader, you mentioned the bill that passed out of the House Judiciary committee. Members who have proposed that bill have done that in the wake of this murder trial in Philadelphia. They argue that there really isn't much of a moral difference between what someone like Dr. Gosnell did to infants born at 23, 24, 25 weeks into pregnancy, and what can happen [legally] at a clinic down the road in Maryland where a doctor says he'll perform an elective abortions 28 weeks into pregnancy. So the question I have for you is what is the moral difference between what Dr. Gosnell did to a baby born alive at 23 weeks and aborting her moments before birth?
PELOSI: You're probably enjoying that question a lot, I can see you savoring it. [Laughter in press corps] Let me just tell you this.
TWS: Could you answer the question?
PELOSI: Let me just tell you this. What was done in Philadelphia was reprehensible and everybody condemned it. For them to decide to disrespect a judgment a woman makes about her reproductive health is reprehensible. Next question.
TWS: So what's the moral difference? I just asked a simple question. … What's the moral difference then between 26 weeks elective abortion and the killing of that same infant born alive. This is the issue that they're trying to--
PELOSI: This is not the issue. They are saying that there's no abortion. It would make it a federal law that there would be no abortion in our country. You're taking the extreme case. You're taking the extreme case. And what I'm saying to you what happened in Philadelphia was reprehensible. And I do not think you.
TWS: [Inaudible]
PELOSI: I'm not going to have this conversation with you because you obviously have an agenda. You're not interested in having an answer.
TWS: [Inaudible]
PELOSI: I've responded to you to the extent that I'm going to respond to you. Because I want to tell you something. As the mother of five children, my oldest child was 6 years old the day I brought my 5th child home from the hospital, as a practicing and respectful Catholic, this is sacred ground to me when we talk about this. I don't think it should have anything to do with politics. And that's where you're taking it and I'm not going there.
TWS [after tape ends]: It was a simple question. You didn't answer.

-- The Weekly Standard transcript from June 13, 2013, press conference with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (CA). Pelosi was asked to reconcile her opposition to a bill restricting late-term abortions with the crimes of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, who killed babies just after they were born.

Comment: This is an evasion by Pelosi. She also tries to dismiss the line of questioning as "politics", even though it is appropriate to discuss as a matter of politics whether denouncing Gosnell's crimes is compatible with supporting late-term abortion.

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DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What I want to ask you about is the fact that you said that he had -- you talked about the excesses that he's engaged in, the fact that he has a dog walker, which is not true.
REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R), MINNESOTA: The big point of my speech was about Benghazi. This was an absolute disaster.
BASH: You also made specific accusations about the president spending money that other presidents also made.
BACHMANN: The real issue is there are four Americans that are dead. The secretary of state was not in conversation with the secretary of defense or with the chair of the joint chiefs of staff.
BASH: I think that's an important point. I think that's an important point but this is another...
(CROSSTALK)
BACHMANN: ... the president of the United States didn't care about those four Americans and they were killed. That's the point.
BASH: But if you want to focus on that...
BACHMANN: That's it, Dana. That's what's important.
BASH: ... then why bring up the other things?
BACHMANN: You want to talk about dog handlers and there's four Americans killed?
BASH: Congresswoman, you're -- but you're the one who brought it up.

-- CNN transcript from March 21, 2013 (the incident between Bash and Bachmann being from March 19, 2013). Bash was asking about Bachmann's March 16, 2013, speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), in which she had accused President Barack Obama of wasteful spending (e.g., having a dog walker).

Comment: This is an evasion by Bachmann, who refuses to answer Bash's question about Bachmann's own "dog walker" accusation.