A number of Republican presidential candidates expressed disbelief and anger that the results of a grand jury investigation initiated by Republican Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson into whether Planned Parenthood illegally sold fetal tissue did not give them the political result they desired.
"I'm disturbed," Marco Rubio told CNN's Sara Murray on Monday night. "We'll need to learn more, but I'm disturbed that while Planned Parenthood, who are the ones that were actually selling off these (body) parts were found having done nothing wrong, the people who tried to expose them are the ones that are now facing criminal charges." […]
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee tweeted, "Its a sick day in America when our govnt punishes those who expose evil w/ a cellphone—yet accommodates those who perform it with a scalpel." […]
"From what I read, somehow the charge is that they falsified government identities because that's true obviously, that's not good, but I only know what I read at this point, but I think it's pretty clear that we now know what goes on in Planned Parenthood clinics," [Carly Fiorina] said. "Here's what I know: Planned Parenthood has been trafficking in body parts. Planned Parenthood has been altering late-term abortion techniques to this specific purpose of harvesting body parts."
And Ben Carson is "saddened," according to his campaign's communications director. He's also shocked, shocked that "they decided to indict the individuals that exposed Planned Parenthood's heinous and illegal activities." District Attorney Anderson seemed a little shocked herself, saying, "As I stated at the outset of this investigation, we must go where the evidence leads us. All the evidence uncovered in the course of this investigation was presented to the grand jury. I respect their decision on this difficult case."
There has never been evidence of Planned Parenthood illegally selling fetal tissue, other than the heavily edited and clearly doctored footage provided by the now-indicted conservative activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. By Planned Parenthood's count, there have been 11 state investigations so far, none of which have shown any wrongdoing by the organization. Which is damned inconvenient for Republican presidential candidates.