House Minority Leader Nanci Pelosi, D-Calif., questioned the truthfulness of the undercover videos that show Planned Parenthood employees discussing the harvesting and sale of fetal organs, while admitting that she has not watched the videos.
“I don’t stipulate that these videos are real, and the fact is that the [fetal tissue] research that is being criticized … [is] being supported,” Pelosi said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper.
“I also know that some of it is not real and you can create any reality that you want,” she said, while admitting that she has not seen the videos, and has only read news reports about them.
Pelosi has repeatedly stood up for government funding for the healthcare organization, even as it has fallen under scrutiny. She is vehemently opposed to removing its federal funding.
She also denied an allegation from Sen. Ted Cruz that she’d worked out a deal with House Speaker John Boehner to fund the rest of President Obama’s agenda through the remainder of his presidency, including funds for Planned Parenthood.
“No, I wish that were true,” Pelosi said.
While House Republicans want to cut off federal funds to the organization, Pelosi turned a blind eye to the accusations that the group has killed babies after they were born alive so that their organs could be harvested for later sales, as discussed by employees in the videos.
On Saturday, Republican leadership announced the establishment of a subcommittee to investigate Planned Parenthood’s practices.
Pelosi said she thought Center for Medical Progress, the group that made the videos, should be investigated instead.
“I think they should be investigated as to how they obtained those and doctor those and then have them be accepted as something that’s an indictment against Planned Parenthood because that’s simply not true,” Pelosi said.
