The GOP is unusually silent about the Planned Parenthood shootings, as only Texas senator Ted Cruz and Ohio governor John Kasich have expressed any condolences to the victims of the shooting in Colorado.
Robert Lewis Dear walked into a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic and held several people as hostages. Dear shot at police during a five-hour stand-off, killing three people and wounding nine others.
After the event, only two of the 14 Republican presidential candidates made any official comment about the shooting. "Praying for the loved ones of those killed, those injured & first responders who bravely got the situation under control in Colorado Springs,'' Cruz wrote on his Twitter account. "Senseless violence has brought tragedy to Colorado Springs", Kasich wrote on his Twitter account.
Republicans have long had a history of animosity towards Planned Parenthood. Many GOP candidates lashed out at the organization after a controversial video was released with a Planned Parenthood worker supposedly selling fetal tissue.
Carly Fiorina alleged that a video existed of a Planned Parenthood employee selling fetal parts. "Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says, 'We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain,'" Fiorina said during a presidential debate, according to Slate.
Republican advisers think that despite their political objections to Planned Parenthood, all the GOP candidates should express remorse for the lives lost in the shooting,
"This event happened 24 hours ago, and lives were lost. It's sad more candidates can't show their support for those in mourning. Republicans can disagree with what PP does and grieve for those injured and killed," said Republican strategist Amanda Carpenter, according to Yahoo! Politics.
"Being pro-life means opposing murder, period. Law enforcement lives are at risk each day, as shown in Colorado yesterday. They need our support more than ever, and the GOP should not hesitate to give it," added Carpenter.
