{"id":88722,"date":"2016-02-25T19:43:24","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T00:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=88722"},"modified":"2016-02-26T17:12:22","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T22:12:22","slug":"ted-cruz-i-would-pardon-planned-parenthood-whistleblowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/ted-cruz-i-would-pardon-planned-parenthood-whistleblowers\/","title":{"rendered":"Ted Cruz: I would pardon Planned Parenthood whistleblowers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>In a Wednesday evening town hall for GOP presidential candidates featured\u00a0on &#8220;The Kelly File,&#8221; Sen. Ted Cruz took the opportunity to defend David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center for Medical Progress. Daleiden and Merritt were behind undercover videos exposing what appears to be illegal\u00a0behavior by top-level Planned Parenthood officials.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->When asked about the filmmakers, who were indicted by a\u00a0Harris County grand jury for allegedly tampering with a governmental record (Daleiden was also indicted for allegedly violating a prohibition on purchasing human organs), Cruz said he would offer a presidential pardon if the case became a federal one.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZLs7BUtilRE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Cruz made it clear that he believes the filmmakers were within their rights to create the undercover videos, and expressed strong <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theblaze.com\/stories\/2016\/02\/25\/heres-how-ted-cruz-responded-when-asked-if-he-would-pardon-planned-parenthood-filmmakers\/\" target=\"_blank\">disapproval <\/a>of the indictment, calling out Planned Parenthood as the real problem.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As a Texan, as a Houstonian, I was deeply dismayed and disappointed to see the Harris County district attorney bringing criminal charges against someone who went undercover to expose what appears to be vast criminal conduct by Planned Parenthood,&#8221; said Cruz.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">And I\u2019ll tell you this, I\u2019ve pledged, if I\u2019m elected president, on the very first day in office, I intend to instruct the U.S. Department of Justice to open an investigation into Planned Parenthood and to prosecute any and all criminal conduct by that organization.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.abortionprocedures.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-88733\" src=\"https:\/\/www.liveactionnews.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/levatino-ad-LAN-1.jpg\" alt=\"levatino-ad-LAN\" width=\"600\" height=\"441\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/levatino-ad-LAN-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/levatino-ad-LAN-1-300x221.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cruz then capitalized on an opportunity to criticize rival Donald Trump&#8217;s\u00a0recent <a href=\"\/news\/donald-trump-planned-parenthood-does-do-wonderful-things\/\" target=\"_blank\">comments,<\/a> in which he claimed Planned Parenthood &#8220;does do wonderful things.&#8221; Cruz argued that Planned Parenthood is a &#8220;criminal enterprise&#8221; which is not &#8220;wonderful in any way, shape or form.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a Wednesday evening town hall for GOP presidential candidates featured\u00a0on &#8220;The Kelly File,&#8221; Sen. Ted Cruz took the opportunity to defend David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center for Medical Progress. Daleiden and Merritt were behind undercover videos exposing what appears to be illegal\u00a0behavior by top-level Planned Parenthood officials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":307,"featured_media":50944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[4154,3885,14,7265,3908,5737],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ted Cruz: I would pardon Planned Parenthood whistleblowers - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Cruz made it clear that he believes the filmmakers were within their rights to create the undercover videos, and expressed disapproval\u00a0of the indictment.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/ted-cruz-i-would-pardon-planned-parenthood-whistleblowers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ted Cruz: I would pardon Planned Parenthood whistleblowers - 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