Jeb Bush’s Service on Bloomberg Foundation Disappears into the Memory Hole [Updated: and Reappears!]

Update, 8/10: Time has a transcript, which was updated at 12:46 ET today, that includes the Bloomberg exchange. The exchange is also included in the broadcast available here now. Thanks to irootsorg for alerting me it is now available.

Ginalou made a remarkable discovery this morning. In the transcripts from last night’s debate that have been released thus far, the exchange where Megyn Kelly asks Jeb Bush about his service on the Bloomberg Foundation at a time when it supported Planned Parenthood (here’s an earlier report on it) has been scrubbed. The exchange should appear where it says “(COMMERCIAL BREAK)” here.

Screen Shot 2015-08-07 at 10.02.07 AM

Someone caught it in the YouTube above (though Fox will surely do a take-down of that). Fox appears only to be releasing selected clips of the debate, and this exchange is not included.

Here’s my transcription for posterity:

Kelly: Governor Bush, let’s start with you. Many Republicans have been outraged recently by a series of videos on Planned Parenthood. You now say that you support ending federal funding for this organization. However, until late 2014, right before you started your campaign, you sat on the board of a Bloomberg charity that quite publicly gave tens of millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood, while you were a Director. How could you not know about these well-publicized donations [a few boos] and if you did know, how could you help a charity so openly committed to abortion rights?

Bush: I joined the Bloomberg foundation because of Mike Bloomberg’s shared commitment for meaningful education reform. That’s why I was on it. We never had a debate about the budget. It was presented and we approved it. Not item by item. Here’s my record. As governor of the state of Florida, I defunded Planned Parenthood. [applause] I created a culture of life in our state. We were the only state to appropriate money for crisis pregnancy centers. We expanded dramatically the number of adoptions out of our foster care system. We created — we did parental notification laws. We ended partial birth abortion. We did all of this. And we were the first state to do a “choose life” license plate. Now 29 states have done it and tens of millions of dollars have gone to create  a culture where more people, more babies are adopted.

Kelly: But did you know?

Bush: [pause] No. I didn’t know. But it doesn’t matter. I was working on this board because of the education. My record is clear. My record as a pro-life governor is not in dispute. I am completely pro-life and I believe that we should have a culture of life, it’s informed by my faith from beginning to end. [big applause] And I did this not just as it related to unborn babies, I did it at the end-of-life issues as well. This is something that goes way beyond politics. And I hope one day that we get to the point where we respect life, in its fullest form, across the board. [applause]

image_print
15 replies
  1. orionATL says:

    television corporations, thru their on- and off-screen employees, act to manipulate the reality of a presidential nominee debate.
    .
    – they select candidates as suitable to participate
    .
    – they selectively question candidates
    .
    – they target candidates to discredit them
    .
    – they erase and rewrite transcripts

    that is extremely active corporate involvement at the very beginning of a presidential contest.

  2. P J Evans says:

    I’d be more surprised if Fox wasn’t in for Jeb!. They’ve made it clear they want him elected, and they’re running the GOP-T party these days.

    (I wouldn’t trust him any farther than I could throw that smirking face of his. It’s as bad as the one Cruz has.)

  3. RUKidding says:

    Another good catch! keep up the good work.
    *
    Must say my avoidance of this dog ‘n pony show called a “Presidential Debate” was easy, as I chucked out my tv years ago. Plus I wouldn’t watch Fox anyway.
    *
    I have read through a few blogs that I mostly trust. I see I didn’t miss much. The usual lies, hype, spin and post-debate rewrites are in evidence. No surprises.
    *
    Is JEB! the candidate that Fox wants? I don’t know. I hear that JEB! was pretty wooden and didn’t make a good showing last night… not that it matters much. I figure that the .001% will duke it out behind the scenes, and then the “winner” will be chosen for us.
    *
    That’s Entertainment!

  4. pdaly says:

    OT: bmaz, I’m not on twitter so I had no way to respond to your exchange on the righthand column here abt the hot glass (Sandra Day O’Connor) US Courthouse in Phoenix.
    .
    Cambridge Public Library (CPL) in MA has a south facing all glass addition that successfully uses a 3 foot air gap between two walls of “low iron” glass to help control the heat in summer and cold in winter. And no misting as far as I know so probably some air conditioning and heating is used.
    .
    Here’s the CPL’s architect’s website link. On that website there is a link to a PDF file showing architectural drawings of the 3 foot air gap with 12 foot mobile horizontal blinds. Maybe Meier’s design can be improved.
    .
    http://www.rawnarch.com/cambridge_public_library

  5. Hans Sherbert says:

    Somebody always wants to fiddle with a transcript.  It’s why official transcripts have line numbers on ’em.  The most modern ones also have intermittent time stamps out to the right that correspond roughly to the video camera’s clock.  Try fiddling with THAT.  No more chunks of “disappeared testimony.”

  6. Teddy says:

    It’s about Terry Schiavo.

    FOX doesn’t want Michael Schiavo continuing to challenge Jeb(!) to a debate on the facts of his interference (and Congress’s, and his brother’s vacation-interruptus return to Washington) in the personal decisions their family was making about the torture that was ending Terry’s life. There must be no record of this oblique and glancing reference:

    (“And I did this not just as it related to unborn babies, I did it at the end-of-life issues as well. “)

    Because it’s far enough back in the memory hole that, without chroniclers like Digby and Charles Pierce, America would have been permitted to forget all about it.

    Read Michael Schiavo’s Jeb(!) takedown here…

    http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/florida/sfl-jeb-bush-terri-schiavo-2016-20150215-story.html

    He is a man on a mission.

    • emptywheel says:

      Thought about that too. That may be part of it.

      Another is that the Bloomberg Charities funds other things, like climate solutions, that would be death for Bush’s primary hopes too.

      • Teddy says:

        I would imagine that the mention of Billionaire Ex-Mayor might be enough for FOX to delete the entire passage; surely Roger and Rupert worry that Mike might see a way into these debates for himself. “Hey, why not a short divorced Jew billionaire for President after all? I mean, The Donald is in the mix! Why Not Me?”

    • orionATL says:

      yeah, when reading ew yesterday i understood bush was coding in a reference to schiavo and the execreble treatment she and her husband received from cold-bloodied florida politicians. the political and legal interference in that american family’s private decision-making was extraordinary. i can tell you from long-time family friendships, though, that keeping terry schiavo alive was a political casus belli among right-wing catholics in florida.

  7. Teddy says:

    Remember the taped conversation between Jeb(!), W, and Poppy, calling Rush to wish him Happy Birthday? GHWB going on about “our man Roger up there at FOX” until W shut him up?

  8. Jonf says:

    Great catch. Nice to have it for posterity after we all forgot about it. Kasich was the only one who came close to being moderate. These guys are just insane.

Comments are closed.