MSNBC reporter Luke Russert editorialized during his report Wednesday on the political fallout from Planned Parenthood videos of officials discussing potential fetal tissue sales, saying Democrats don't have the "high ground" on this like they did in the "War on Women" analogy that "Republicans were guilty of in 2012."
Russert was referring to the oft-repeated claim by Democrats that Republican policies on women's issues constituted a "war on women," such as Mitt Romney's innocuous "binders full of women" remark during a debate. To posit that Republicans were actually "guilty" of such a charge seemed to be a role suited more for a political commentator than a correspondent doing a straight news report.
"Planned Parenthood is saying one thing, the filmmakers are saying another, but on its face and in the 30-second-sound-bite world in which we live, in the social media sphere we live in, it's very hard to sort of push back and put all that in context in a political argument," Russert said.
"So this is something where Democrats in the past have sort of seen an opening. We all remember the famous 'war on women' analogy that the Republicans were guilty of in 2012. They don't have that high ground as much in this capacity, because they just don't know what's out there and what's to come."