Washington Post columnist and MSNBC contributor Jonathan Capehart admitted Wednesday he hadn't seen "disturbing" undercover videos of Planned Parenthood discussing fetal tissue sales and various methods to get intact organs, but he nevertheless defended the organization.
Capehart said he couldn't watch them because "there are some things where I just have to draw the line."
"I would say, I haven't seen the videos," Capehart said on Morning Joe. "The discussion of the videos is disturbing enough."
"Is that why you haven't watched them?" fill-in host Nicolle Wallace asked. "You just feel like you have enough information?"
"There are some things where I just have to draw the line, things that I can deal with as a human being," Capehart said. "I cannot get to the point, though, where I say that Planned Parenthood should be completely defunded. They do so many other things, providing health care to women."
Capehart added a woman tweeted at him that she was still alive thanks to Planned Parenthood. The BlazeTV's Amy Holmes told Capehart he should watch the videos, "as we're discussing this issue," to decide for himself if he could abide the conduct being discussed.
"We are on the same page on that issue," he said. "What I'm saying is I then can't go the next step, like a lot of the Planned Parenthood opponents, and say that Planned Parenthood should be completely defunded."
Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards mounted a fierce defense of her group during questioning about the videos on Capitol Hill Tuesday, saying her organization was being demonized by "deceptively edited" videos. However, a forensic analysis found the videos were authentic and showed no hint of manipulation or editing.
Many Republicans have pushed for defunding of Planned Parenthood, the country's largest abortion provider.
Holmes acknowledged she was pro-choice earlier in the segment but said the unedited versions of the videos she'd seen were "appalling."
"You listen to representatives of Planned Parenthood discussing manipulating the procedure in order to get a more intact fetus for the trade of fetal tissue," Holmes said. "You also can see people talking about how they might be manipulating the books and the accounting so they might be able to barter more or less for fetal remains. Whatever is your position on choice or pro-life, if you watch these videos in full, you must be disturbed and you must want to see and understand more what is going on here."