When a conspiracy theorist is elected President of the United States, these are the things you can expect to happen.
According to new reporting on Thursday, Donald Trump’s Justice Department is now going after Planned Parenthood based on an already-debunked conspiracy theory that the health organization illegally profited from aborted fetuses.
More from The Hill:
In the letter obtained by The Hill, the department requests unredacted documents from the panel’s 2016 probe into Planned Parenthood over claims that the organization profited off the transfer of tissue and body parts from aborted fetuses to research firms.
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Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who chairs the committee, referred Planned Parenthood to the FBI last December, saying at the time that his committee had uncovered enough evidence for the FBI to investigate the claims.
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The letter sent Thursday states that the Justice Department intends to conduct a “thorough and comprehensive assessment” of Grassley’s report.
The investigation into Planned Parenthood is just the latest assault on the organization by Republicans who have been pushing to have it defunded for years. What’s particularly puzzling about this investigation is that the claims have already been investigated and debunked more than a dozen times.
As Planned Parenthood Vice President of Government Affairs Dana Singiser said last month, following Grassley’s recommendation, this GOP fantasy has been investigated multiple times in Congress and in more than a dozen states.
“Planned Parenthood strongly disagrees with the recommendations of the Senate Republican staff to refer this matter to the Justice Department, especially in light of the fact that investigations by three other Congressional committees, and investigations in 13 states including a Grand Jury in Texas, have all shown that Planned Parenthood did nothing wrong,†she said.
But again, this is what happens when a conspiracy theorist is elected President of the United States. Facts don’t matter. It’s the same reason why the president launched an utterly ridiculous investigation into “massive voter fraud” in favor of Hillary Clinton that never happened last year.
Instead of being guided by a reality-based view of the world and implementing practical public policies that could actually help the American people, Trump and his administration choose to listen to tin foil hat fantasies – all because it will appeal to their base of misinformed voters.
This is a dangerous place for America to be.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
