In portions of Charles Gibson's third interview with Sarah Palin aired on Friday's 20/20 and Nightline, but not earlier on World News, Gibson demanded to know why she and John McCain “keep saying” Barack Obama will raise taxes when he says he won't, followed up her wish that Roe v Wade be overturned by -- in a question left out of the ABCNews.com transcript -- contending “it's a critical issue for so many women. You believe women should not have that choice?” and after Palin expressed support for gun rights, he asserted “we spend billions of dollars a year every year treating people who are victims of gun violence” and pleaded, as if more gun control is the only solution: “Nothing we can do about that?”
As the two sat in Palin's Wasilla home, Gibson scolded her and McCain:
Why do you both keep saying that Obama is going to raise people's taxes? It's been pretty clear what he intends. He's talked about middle-class tax cuts, extending Bush tax cuts on everything but people who own or earn more than $250,000 a year -- cuts taxes on over 91 percent of the country. Why do you keep saying he's going to raise people's taxes?
Palin retorted: “Well, I would argue with the whole premise of that, that his mission is to not increase taxes. He's had 94 opportunities to either vote for a tax cut or not support tax increases. And 94 times, he's been on the other side of what I believe the majority of Americans want.”
As excerpted on Friday's World News, Gibson asked: “Roe v. Wade, do you think it should be reversed?” Palin affirmed: “I think it should and I think that states should be able to decide that issue.” But in a follow up question carried on 20/20 and Nightline, Gibson portrayed Palin as anti-women: “It's a critical issue for so many women. You believe women should not have that choice?”
At another point in the interview as shown on World News, Gibson made the dubious claim that “70 percent of this country supports a ban on semiautomatic assault weapons. Do you?” Palin replied: “I do not...” 20/20 then played Gibson's thesis: “Isn't gun violence in America a health issue? We spend billions of dollars a year every year treating people who are victims of gun violence. Nothing we can do about that?”
Palin delivered a perfect conservative response:
Do I think that all of that gun violence, though, is caused by people pulling a trigger who would have followed any law anyway? No. You start banning guns and you start taking away guns from people who will use them responsibly and use them ethically. You put more and more laws on guns and you start taking away a Second Amendment right, it's going to be, Charlie, the bad guys who have the guns, not those who are law-abiding citizens.
For my previous rundowns of all three Gibson sit-downs with Palin (part 1 on Thursday's World News, part 2 on Thursday's Nightline, with some of portions 1 and 2 on Friday's Good Morning America), and part 3 as aired on Friday's World News, check:
Part 1: “Gibson Accuses Palin of 'Hubris' and Seeing Iraq as 'a Holy War'”
Part 2: “Gibson Pushes Palin to Concede Global Warming 'Man-Made'”
Part 3: “Gibson: Economy 'Sick,' Makes Palin Affirm Conservative Social Views”
