TONGUE TIED: Texas Republican stumped when asked about GOP’s plan to protect living children
Texas State Rep. James White was at a loss for words when he was asked why the state can’t “protect living ten-year-olds.” In an interview with CNN‘s Alisyn Camerota and Victor Blackwell, the Texas Republican legislator was asked why the state doesn’t take the blueprint they enacted for restricting abortion access and apply it to guns. Camerota’s question went straight to the heart of the matter.
“We’ve all seen how quickly and creatively Texas, your local legislature, can act when it wants to, say, protect the unborn embryo. Why not act with that alacrity to protect living, breathing 10-year-olds in this school behind me?,” the CNN journalist asked.
Alisyn Camerota Tells GOP Rep, ‘Texas Can Act When It Wants to Protect the Unborn,’ So ‘Why Not Protect Living, Breathing 10-Year-Olds?’ https://t.co/rZuzHWGULK
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) May 25, 2022
The school that Camerota is referring to is Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, where 21 people, including 19 children, were killed just over a week ago. Camerota pushed Rep. White on the state’s lax gun laws as compared to its abortion laws, suggesting that Texas women seeking abortions have to answer questions and that the state forces them “to come back to the scene.”
Texas law requires a 24-hour waiting period before obtaining an abortion, and, under the Texas Woman’s Right to Know Act (SB835), doctors are required to go over state-mandated information with the women as it pertains to risk, resources, and future fertility.
White’s response? A reflexive whipping out of the U.S. Constitution.
“Let me tell you why we will not – have not, taken the approach consistent with the legislation you brought up as it relates to innocent unborn life in the womb, is because we have this thing called the constitution,” White declared, obilivious to the fact that the Supreme Court ruling granting American women the right to determine their own reproductive futures is still the law of the land.
White’s attempt to deflect attention to the mental health narrative being pushed by the GOP was swiftly interrupted by co-host Victor Blackwell, who reminded the representative that the NRA itself – of which White himself is a member – attributed the Uvalde shooting to the “act of a lone deranged gunman.”
It appeared in the video that White was both ill-prepared and uncomfortable as he stuttered multiple times throughout the interview.
The media is often criticized for not pushing back hard enough on their Republican guests, but hopefully, the hardline taken by reporters Camerota and Blackwell is one we will see more of.
Follow Ty Ross on Twitter @cooltxchick
