Last week, I wrote about Gov. Chris Sununu and Lt. Governor-Elect Winsome Sears lying and deceiving the public in Gov. Sununu Lies to the Nation. Apparently, this is a trend, because this week Gov. Tate Reeves (R-MS) himself went on Meet the Press on MSNBC to lie to the nation.
It’s one thing for Republicans to appear on CNN and spout propaganda and outright lies, because we know CNN has limited capacity to resist partisan hacks. But for MSNBC to allow Reeves to just blatantly lie to people is a shocking level of failure.
To his credit, Chuck Todd confronted Reeves about his statement that the federal government was taking away “freedom and liberty” by mandating people take the covid vaccine. So, why is it different, he asked, for abortion, where the state is taking away the freedom and liberty of women who want abortions? He played a clip of Reeves claiming covid mandates take away said liberty. Then…
Todd:
“Freedom and individual liberty.” Why should the state of Mississippi tell a woman what they should do with their body?
Reeves:
This is a prime example, and the far left loves to scream “my body my choice”. And, what I would submit to you, Chuck, is they absolutely ignore the fact that in getting an abortion there is an actual killing of an innocent, unborn child that is in that womb.
Here’s what we know about babies that are 15 weeks. We know that they have a heartbeat. We know that those babies at 15 weeks can open and close their hands. We know they have developing lungs. We know that those babies at 15 weeks can feel pain.
And so, when you talk—the difference between vaccine mandates and abortion, is that vaccines allow you to protect yourself. Abortions actually go in and kill other American babies.
[From Meet the Press, 28 November 2021]
None of this is evidence that a fetus at 15 weeks is a child. To be a child, it would need to be human, and none of the evidence he cited indicates this fetus is human.
A pig has a heartbeat. That does not make a pig a human. A pig can move its feet. That does not make it human. A pig has lungs. That does not make it human. A pig can feel pain. That does not make it human.
We give humans rights because we believe humans are sentient beings. We believe they have consciousness and are capable of understanding the consciousness of others.
This capacity does not develop in the human fetus until late in pregnancy. Until the fetus gains this sentience it is not a child. It has no claim to human rights.
But the mother does. This person has a claim to control their body. They have a claim to get medical treatment that will help them be and stay healthy.
The State of Mississippi is trying to take away that right. And they are doing so based on a lie. They are lying that the fetus is a child.
BTW, Reeves’s claim that vaccines allow you to protect yourself is telling. This is how Republicans think about everything. It’s only in terms of the individual and how something might affect them. Hence, their view of vaccination is that it protects the person getting vaccinated, but they have a total blind spot about how getting vaccinated protects others.
Let me just clarify that. Republicans are completely self-centered and don’t care about others. That’s their world view.
And, as a kicker, there’s the repulsive part, where he claims abortions kill “American babies”. Because, of course, to Republicans, non-American babies don’t count.
Networks like MSNBC, and CNN (if they were a responsible organization) should immediately and forcefully stop their guests from lying to the nation. Until they do, we cannot expect honest discussion in politics, and we will see liars, like Gov. Reeves, show up and lie to all of us.