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Convenient Mistruth: Chris Smith Pushes Lies When it Suits Him

Smith tries to appear honest and evenhanded, but quickly abandons it when politically convenient.

Amy Eklof, Neighbor

Chris Smith loves to portray himself as a responsible, evenhanded leader who approaches everything from a position of bipartisan fairness with a commitment to the truth. However, he exhibits none of these qualities if a far-fetched story emerges about a person or group that doesn't align with his ideology.

During the 2008 election, conservatives were looking for a boogeyman in Barack Obama’s closet and settled upon the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. They struck out during the election, but in 2009, long-time huckster James O’Keefe made fake videos purporting to show ACORN staffers helping people set up brothels.

Chris Smith went all-in. He sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking for a special counsel investigation, citing the evidence from the fake videos in great detail. He cosponsored a bill to defund ACORN on September 16th, 2009, just six days after the video was released and before anyone could evaluate its merits. Republicans whipped up such a fervor that government agencies cut their ties with ACORN and Congress suspended its funding.

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Of course, this was all hogwash. ACORN was cleared of any wrongdoing, and O’Keefe had to pay $100,000 in restitution to an ACORN employee.

Obviously, Smith learned his lesson about undercover videos, and didn’t fall for this gag again.

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Nope.

In July of 2015, the Center for Medical Progress, a deceptively named anti-choice organization, released heavily edited videos of Planned Parenthood employees to make it appear as though they were were selling fetal body parts for profit.

Smith was apoplectic Over the next six months, he referenced the tapes six times from the House floor, using them to justify his calls to defund Planned Parenthood and support his anti-reproductive rights legislation. He insisted Planned Parenthood was “hiding something” and called for an investigation. He made similar arguments in multiple op eds, press releases, and speeches.

Here’s the thing. Smith made his first comment on the CMP videos on July 15th, 2015. FactCheck.org thoroughly debunked them on July 21st. But Smith raved on, invoking the tapes in his anti-reproductive rights crusade until January of 2016.

Consider the timeline:
2015

  • July 15th:Smith makes his first comments about the CMP videos in a press conference, and calls for an investigation.
  • July 21st: FactCheck.org thoroughly debunks CMP videos.
  • July 21st: Smith cites the CMP videos from the House floor, asks for investigation.
  • September 16th: Smith cites CMP videos from the House floor, supports one year moratorium on PP funding.
  • September 18th: Smith cites CMP videos from the House floor as justification for the “Born Alive Survivors Protection Act”.
  • September 29th: Smith cites CMP videos from the House floor as justification to support HR 3495, giving states the right to defund Planned Parenthood.
  • November 23rd: Smith authors an op ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer based on CMP videos.

2016

  • January 6th: Smith cites CMP videos from the House floor as justification to defund Planned Parenthood.
  • January 7th: Smith cites CMP videos from the House floor as justification to weaken the Affordable Care Act and defund Planned Parenthood.
  • January 8th: Smith cites CMP videos in a press release criticizing Obama for vetoing a bill that would have weakened the Affordable Care Act.
  • January 21st: Smith authors op ed in the Washington Examiner based on CMP videos, claims there is an “aggressive and misleading cover-up” six months after videos have been debunked.
  • January 22nd: Smith cites the CMP videos in his remarks at the 2016 “March for Life.”
  • The Center for Medical Progress released more tapes in 2017 and 2018, Smith publicly referenced them again and called for investigations.
In November of 2019, a federal jury found CMP’s founder, David Daleidan, liable

for $2.2 million in damages to Planned Parenthood.

While there’s no doubt that Smith would have supported defunding Planned Parenthood, weakening the Affordable Care Act, and restricting reproductive rights without the CMP videos, all of those efforts require action from the legislative branch, and therefore, the support of the public. By invoking debunked videos for six months as justification for such endeavors, Smith is betraying the public’s trust and denying them the opportunity to make an informed decision. One can only conclude that Smith can’t convince Americans to abandon the many benefits provided by Planned Parenthood or the ACA

based on the truth.

But Smith is quick to accuse others of dishonesty.

When under fire for his comments about LGBT adoption in 2018, Smith called the editing of a tape “despicable,” and said “Anybody can twist your words and make false representations when they splice up a tape.” (There is no evidence the tape was altered. Rather, two different portions of the conversation were recorded by different people, and the recording released by Smith’s staff confirms he would ban federal funding for LGBT adoption.)Early in his 2020 campaign, Smith’s staff used a thank-you note from his challenger, Stephanie Schmid - written when she was a 16-year-old intern in his office - to call her a liar.
Smith has even referred to an accurate telling of his record on women’s rights as a “smear campaign” in a mailer full of deception. Whenever voters hear Smith doing his best “honest Abe,” decrying a lack of civility in our politics, or accusing others of misrepresenting him, they should remember that he is no paragon of truthful bipartisan virtue. When it suits his political needs, he will embrace and proffer any manner of disinformation, both before it can be evaluated and months after there is ample evidence of the scam. (It must also be mentioned, that if we are talking about a need for honesty in politics, Smith is incapable of uttering a single thing against the living embodiment of disinformation that is Donald Trump.
Just like in every election, Smith is busy trying to clean up his image on women’s rights, healthcare, and more for 2020. Don’t fall for it. He’s obviously afraid that if voters saw the whole picture, they would - to use his own words about Planned Parenthood - realize that his “meticulously crafted façade of care and compassion has been shredded.”P.S. - I can already hear someone trying to claim that Smith was referring to the unedited version of the video, therefore absolving him of pushing a debunked claim. Not so. He refers to Planned Parenthood’s activities as “for a profit,” to get “even richer,” and “for a price” right up until the end. He consistently directs people to CMP’s website, and at no point acknowledges that Planned Parenthood was doing legal scientific tissue donation and only attempting to cover costs.

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