The Arizona Republic's Dan Nowicki has a post with explanations from both Arizona Senator Jon Kyl and his press secretary about their comments one week ago that are on their way to becoming part of the lexicon when politicians botch a fact. On the Senate floor, Kyl stated that he wanted to provide some information (about the issues that were holding up a deal to avert the government shutdown), and went on to horribly botch a statistic about Planned Parenthood and the percentage of abortions they provide. When confronted, his press secretary gave a now-classic explanation, stating that Kyl had not intended to make a factual statement.
It was widely assumed that Kyl's comment that more than 90% of what PPA does is provide abortions was a misstatement of the 3% figure that PPA self-reports. However, Kyl's explanation to the Republic is that he inadvertently left out the word "pregnant" from a statistic showing that 98% of the services provided to PREGNANT WOMEN are abortions. He cites that statistic's usage by an anti-abortion foundation and a former PPA employee who now campaigns against PPA; PPA disputes the validity of how that percentage was derived from its report.
For his part, press secretary Ryan Patmintra clearly states that he made his statement about Kyl's intentions without running it by his boss. And, "that, in retrospect, made no sense."
It is very likely that if Sen. Kyl and Mr. Patmintra had made these comments on Monday instead of waiting for Thursday, that faux news commentator Stephen Colbert (and Jon Stewart and others) would have decided not to run with the so-called "excuse-planation", letting loose a non-stop barrage poking fun at the Senator. Ah, well.
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