After two days of silence, GOP candidates respond to Planned Parenthood shootings

The suspected gunman is taken into custody outside Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs on Friday. (Photo: Isaiah J. Downing/Reuters)

After two days of near-radio silence over the deadly shootings at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, several Republican presidential candidates addressed the attack Sunday.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee condemned the alleged shooter, 57-year-old Robert Lewis Dear, who reportedly told investigators “no more baby parts” when questioned following his arrest Friday.

“What he did is domestic terrorism,” Huckabee said in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “And what he did is absolutely abominable, especially to us in the pro-life movement, because there’s nothing about any of us that would condone or in any way look the other way on something like this.”

Huckabee contrasted his reaction with Secretary of State John Kerry’s comments following the recent terror attacks in Paris. Kerry said the January assault on the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris had a “rationale” that could be understood, while the attacks earlier this month did not.

“We’re not going to have the kind of language that you heard from John Kerry where he talked about legitimizing or rationalizing terrorist actions,” Huckabee said. “There’s no legitimizing, there’s no rationalizing. It was mass murder. It was absolutely unfathomable. And there’s no excuse for killing other people, whether it’s happening inside the Planned Parenthood headquarters, inside their clinics where many millions of babies die, or whether it’s people attacking Planned Parenthood.”

Three people were killed — including a veteran police officer — and 12 others were wounded in Friday’s shootings.

Carly Fiorina — whose controversial comments about Planned Parenthood videos during a Republican debate briefly elevated her candidacy — called the shootings “a tragedy.”

“Nothing justifies this,” Fiorina said on “Fox News Sunday.” “And presumably, this man who appears deranged, if nothing else, will be tried for murder as he should be. But it’s a tragedy, especially on a holiday weekend.“

The former Hewlett-Packard chief executive had called for the defunding of Planned Parenthood in the wake of videos she said showed workers discussing harvesting fetal tissue while “a fully formed fetus [lies] on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking” — a claim that proved to be false.

“We’ve experienced so much hateful language, hateful speech, such a negative environment has been created … around the idea of safe and legal abortion,” Vicki Cowart, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Rocky Mountains, said on ABC’s “This Week.” “And we’ve seen that across the country from all sorts of speakers in the last few months. I can’t believe that this isn’t contributing to some folks, mentally unwell or not, thinking that it’s OK to target Planned Parenthood or to target abortion providers.”

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders suggested such rhetoric may have inspired the alleged gunman.

“While we still do not know the shooter’s motive, what is clear is that Planned Parenthood has been the subject of vicious and unsubstantiated statements attacking an organization that provides critical health care for millions of Americans,“ the Democratic hopeful said in a statement. “I strongly support Planned Parenthood and the work it is doing and hope people realize that bitter rhetoric can have unintended consequences.”

Fiorina fired back.

“This is so typical of the left to immediately begin demonizing the messenger because they don’t agree with the message,” she said. “Anyone who tries to link this terrible tragedy to anyone who opposes abortion or opposes the sale of body parts is … this is typical left-wing tactics.”

Dr. Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon-turned-GOP hopeful, described the shootings as a “hate crime” and called for a “rational discussion” from those on both sides of the abortion issue.

“Unfortunately, there’s a lot of extremism coming from all areas,” Carson said on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday. “It’s one of the biggest problems that I think is threatening to tear our country apart. We get into our separate corners and we hate each other, we want to destroy those with whom we disagree.”

He added: “You know, all you have to do is go to an article on the Internet and go to the comments section. You don’t get five comments down before people start calling each other names and acting like idiots, you know. What happened to us? What happened to the civility that used to characterize our society?”

Republican frontrunner Donald Trump dismissed the alleged gunman as a “maniac,” but refused to tone down the anti-abortion talk.

“I will tell you there is a tremendous group of people that think it’s terrible, all of the videos that they’ve seen with some of these people from Planned Parenthood, talking about [harvesting fetal tissue] like you’re selling parts to a car,” Trump said. “Now, I know some of the tapes were perhaps not pertinent. I know that a couple of people that are running for office on the Republican side were commenting on tapes that weren’t appropriate. But there were many tapes that are appropriate in terms of commenting on. It looks like you’re talking about parts to some machine or something. And they’re not happy about it.”

Trump speaks at a rally in Sarasota, Fla., on Saturday. (Photo: Steve Nesius/AP)

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who referred to Planned Parenthood as a “criminal enterprise” during a GOP debate in September, called Friday’s shootings “unacceptable, horrific, and wrong.“

“We know that police officers and civilians have been targeted and lost their lives, and our prayers are, right now, are with the families,” Cruz said while campaigning in Iowa Saturday. “I have spent much of my adult life working in law enforcement, working against murderers and those who commit violent crime, and that one officer who lost his life is particularly tragic.”

Meanwhile, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is calling for stricter gun control measures in the wake of the shootings.

“We’ve got to try and keep guns out of the hands of people who are violent and unstable,” the Democratic governor said on CNN. “I think we have to come back and look at all aspects of why these shootings have continued to occur — you know, in Oregon or South Carolina or Colorado.”

Hickenlooper added: “The frequency is unacceptable, and … I’m not willing to say, ‘Well, we just have to sit back and accept this as the cost of freedom.’”