The Nightly Show's Larry Wilmore Calls Out Fox News And The GOP For Racist And Anti-Abortion Rhetoric

Larry Wilmore explains Fox News' pattern of hyping anti-abortion rhetoric, which has spiked with the release of deceptively edited videos falsely claiming that Planned Parenthood illegally sells fetal tissue released by the conservative group the Center for Medical Progress (CMP). Fox has repeatedly ignored investigations clearing Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing and has promoted the videos, even go so far as to ask if CMP should receive a Pulitzer Prize. From the November 30 edition of Comedy Central's The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore:

LARRY WILMORE: I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. You know what I did? [INAUDIBLE] I did one of my favorite things. I do this every year, OK. Curl up on the couch, put on a little Fox & Friends, and I get my black holiday cooking tips.

[START CLIP]

ELISABETH HASSELBECK: You can do this any time of the year. I love that.

HARRIS FAULKNER: You can do this. I do it in the summer. And I put fresh strawberries in here, too.

BRIAN KILMEADE: Do you make Kool-Aid?

FAULKNER: That's another - do I do what?

KILMEADE: Make Kool-Aid.

FAULKNER: No, I don't make Kool-Aid.

[END CLIP]

WILMORE: No. What are you doing? You don't ask a black woman if she made Kool-Aid for Thanksgiving. For two reasons, by the way. One, because it's racist. And two, because of course she did. Duh, duh. But now she has to lie about it on television. Making that poor black woman lie on TV. That's wrong. And to make matters worse, her daughter Bella had to watch this drive-by racism up close and personal. Look at her face. That is going to leave an emotional scar. Even Steve Doocy's like, dude, you know we're on TV, right? I mean, I'm not wrong. That was racist, right?

KOOL-AID MAN: Oh yeah.

WILMORE: Thank you, Kool-Aid Man. We've always understood each other, me and Kool-Aid Man.

WILMORE: But, to be fair, it's not odd for a Fox News anchor to bring up Kool-Aid. It's constantly on their minds. Because that's what they're constantly serving people. It's true. Fox and the GOP love making up a big batch of Kool-Aid and doling it out like it's Jonestown. And they start by pouring a pitcher of factless accusations, add a splash of fearmongering, and then they just stir up the base. This time, it had to do with Friday's tragic [Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic] shooting.

[...]

WILMORE: 'No more baby parts.' OK now, this could be excused as just a nut uttering some crazy thing. But that sounds very specific. 'No more baby parts.' I mean, almost as if it was served up in an nice cold pitcher of Fox and their friends' Kool-Aid.

[START CLIPS]

BILL O'REILLY: Selling the body parts of aborted babies.

[...]

CHARLES PAYNE: Baby parts.

ANDREA TANTAROS: Baby parts.

[...]

O'REILLY: A dead baby's head.

[END CLIPS]

[...]

WILMORE: Okay, so let's review. Since the summer, Fox and the GOP ramped up their rhetoric about baby body parts being sold [by] Planned Parenthood -- the Kool-Aid. Cut to, a guy shoots up a Planned Parenthood, then rants about baby parts. Now, you guys know what Occam's razor is, right? The simplest explanation is probably the correct one. So do I feel comfortable saying that he was at least partially motivated by the right's demonization of Planned Parenthood?

KOOL-AID MAN: Oh yeah.

WILMORE: Presidential candidate Ted-incredibly-(beep)-annoying-Cruz weighed in with his theory.

[START CLIP]

TED CRUZ: The media promptly wants to blame him on the pro-life movement when at this point there's very evidence to indicate that.

REPORTER: Well, it was reported he said 'no more baby parts' as he was apprehended.

CRUZ: Well, it's also reported that he was registered as an Independent and as a woman and a transgendered leftist activist if that's what he is.

[END CLIP]

WILMORE: Man, Ted Cruz isn't just drinking Kool-Aid. He's swan diving into it. So after just making up that a leftist activist shot up a Planned Parenthood, he then said this.

[START CLIP]

CRUZ: I don't think it's fair to blame on the rhetoric of the left.

[END CLIP]

WILMORE: Oh fine, someone give this man a medal. How gracious of you not to blame the rhetoric of the people who you just pretended committed this crime. The Kool-Aid is strong with this one. Strong Kool-Aid. Pouring out. And there's one person who has clearly gone from drinking Kool-Aid to getting it intreveneously. The mistress of brain harvesting Kool-Aid herself, Carly Fiorina. Check out how she blamed the left.

[START CLIP]

CARLY FIORINA: This is so typical of the left to immediately begin demonizing a messenger because they don't agree with the message.

[END CLIP]

WILMORE: Hold on a second. The messenger is a murderer. And his message is murder. Who agrees with that message? There's no demonizing a demon. He's already a demon. That's his job, demoning. But Carly wasn't done.

[START CLIP]

CHRIS WALLACE: What would you say to the protestors, the people that are outside the clinics and oppose it?

FIORINA: Well, any protestors should always be peaceful, whether it's Black Lives Matter or pro-life protestors.

[END CLIP]

WILMORE: Black Lives Matter, no, no, no, no, no. Black Lives Matter protestors, the people who are protesting being shot at by the police, were literally shot at last week. And you ask for them to be peaceful? ... I realize that the Kool-Aid isn't directly responsible for the shooting, but it is a contributing factor.