Strong words today from the White House over those Planned Parenthood videos showing officials with the nation’s leading abortion provider discussing the sale of aborted body parts. But not for Planned Parenthood.  

Press Secretary Josh Earnest called the release of the videos “fraudulent,” later clarifying that he was relying on public statements from Planned Parenthood when he made that charge, as well as other critics of the videos by The Center for Medical Progress, an anti-abortion group. “There’s ample reason to think that this is merely the tried and true tactic that we have seen from extremists on the right to edit this video and selectively release and edited version of the video that grossly distorts the position of the person who is actually speaking on the video,” Earnest said.  

Those videos have revived the GOP’s longstanding efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, but Earnest repeated that the White House opposed such efforts but did not issue a formal veto threat.  

“The president will not support another effort by Republicans to try to defund an organization that offers important and needed health care services for millions of women across the country,” he said.  

As for the videos themselves, Earnest again said he doesn’t know if President Barack Obama has seen the videos but said he’s read stories about them.  

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