Former Clinton adviser Dick Morris on Monday accused ABC’s George Stephanopoulos of being a “paid Democratic hitman.” Appearing on Fox News’s Hannity, Morris also said Stephanopoulos was “under orders” to ask Mitt Romney all those contraception questions during ABC’s January 7 Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire:
DICK MORRIS: Obama did not make a mistake in this mandate. It’s a deliberately calculated move on his part. The Democrats realize that abortion is no longer a winner for them. It used to be ten points more pro-choice than pro-Life, now it’s ten points more pro-Life than pro-choice possibly because of the publicity of the anti-abortion people, possibly because of the aging of the population. But the point is that it’s a loser issue. So what they’re trying to do now is replace it with contraception. So the first piece of evidence was after Santorum won Iowa, the first controversy was, “Do you think states should have the right to ban contraception?” Where did that come from? Then you remember that ABC debate with that paid Democratic hitman George Stephanopoulos went after Romney trying to…
SEAN HANNITY, HOST: Friend of yours, Dick.
MORRIS: …trying to pin him down on, on contraception? And Romney kept saying, “George, nobody wants to make contraception.” “No, but do they have the theoretical power to do it?” Remember, it was five minutes, people were laughing at him, booing him. Well that…
HANNITY: You think he was doing this under direct orders?
MORRIS: Under orders. And I think, and now he comes out with this thing on contraception. They want to create the idea, and it’s no coincidence, that he came out with it after Minnesota and Colorado which was Santorum’s victories. They want to create the impression that the Republicans will ban contraception, which is totally insane, but they’re floating it out and they’re bringing it out there. And this move on Obama’s part was part of injecting that issue.