WASHINGTON, D.C. - Last night, during an appearance on CNN’s Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, admitted that he has no evidence that Planned Parenthood has violated any laws:
Blitzer: “Is there any evidence in your opinion that Planned Parenthood has broken any law?"
Chaffetz: “No, I’m not suggesting that they broke the law."
Despite this remarkable admission, today House Energy and Commerce Republicans are doubling down on their ideological fishing expedition by sending a series of new investigative letters to Planned Parenthood Federation of America and seven of its affiliates.
Today, House Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), released the following statement in response:
“Apparently Energy and Commerce Republicans did not get Chairman Chaffetz’s memo that there is no evidence that Planned Parenthood Federation broke any laws. Earlier this month, Committee Democrats also put out a memo debunking the outrageous allegations made by David Daleidan and his supporters in Congress, based on information obtained from the Committee’s investigation.
“Using this Committee to endlessly harass an organization in the hopes of damaging its reputation, simply because you are ideologically opposed to a women’s right to choose, undermines the integrity of this Committee and is an abuse of Congress’ power to investigate. The Republicans are grasping at straws here, and this obviously political effort has lost any semblance of legitimacy.
“I urge my Republican colleagues to abandon their plans to establish a new subcommittee to harass Planned Parenthood and, instead, focus on the important work facing our Committee and this nation."
Chaffetz’s admission follows a similar admission a day earlier by Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who admitted during an interview on Fox that the Republican goal in establishing the Benghazi Select Committee was to damage Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign:
“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee. A select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known that any of that had happened had we not fought to make that happen."
