Tom Perez draws rebuke from Pelosi after declaring Dems can't be pro-life
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Democrats no longer have a choice about being pro-choice.
So says Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez, who drew a swift rebuke from Republicans and a public swipe from a top leader of his own party after declaring Friday that “every Democrat” should be pro-choice -- no exceptions.
Asked Sunday if a Democratic politician could be pro-life, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was unequivocal.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
“Of course,” Pelosi told NBC's “Meet The Press.” “I have served many years in Congress with members who have not shared my very positive – my family would say aggressive – position on promoting a woman’s right to choose.”
DON'T MISS 'TUCKER CARLSON TONIGHT' AT 8 pm ET, FOLLOWED AT 9 pm BY 'THE FIVE'
She added: “Why don’t you interview Tom Perez?”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
The controversy originated after a DNC “Unity Tour” stop last week in Nebraska, where DNC Deputy Chairman Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., appeared with a former state senator who had once supported a bill requiring an abortion-seeking woman to “be told of her right to request a list of places she can get a free ultrasound.” The ex-senator, Heath Mello, is now an Omaha mayoral candidate.
DEMS' NEW MESSAGE: REPUBLICANS 'DON'T GIVE A SH-T'
The eight-year-old-bill didn’t require the woman to get an ultrasound; however, NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue blasted the embattled DNC for straying from the pro-choice agenda.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
“The actions today by the DNC to embrace and support a candidate for office who will strip women – one of the most critical constituencies for the party – of our basic rights and freedom is not only disappointing, it is politically stupid,” Hogue said in a statement.
Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats and ran in the Democratic presidential primary, responded by saying intraparty differences on abortion were natural. Sanders contended that a candidate in a Southern state couldn’t be expected to have identical views as a candidate in a liberal, coastal state.
Perez, however, was having none of Sanders’ pragmatism, instead firmly lashing his party to the pro-choice position.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
“Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health,” Perez said in a statement on Friday. “That is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state.”
Pro-life Republicans took the opportunity to hit Perez, with Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse tweeting out a picture of a baby in the womb.
".@TomPerez Your profile says you fight for the little guy. Please check out this little fella -- special, isn't he? (He's 12 weeks old.)," Sasse wrote.