MoveOn.org attacks Republican field on ‘let him die’ question

Liberal activist group MoveOn.org released a video Friday criticizing the GOP presidential field’s reaction to a question at Monday’s GOP debate.

The ad focuses on a few audience members who could be heard heckling when moderator Wolf Blitzer and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) discussed whether a young person without insurance who got into an accident should be allowed to die or not. 

When Blitzer asked if, in the hypothetical situation, the young person should be allowed to die, at least one member of the audience could be heard saying “yes.” Paul said “no” but there was a bit of a silence before he jumped in. 

{mosads}”What he should do is whatever he wants to do, and assume responsibility for himself,” Paul said. 

The MoveOn video features Susan Grigsby, a woman who tells the story of how her brother lost his job and was left without health insurance.

“What really horrified me about that debate wasn’t the poorly phrased question, it wasn’t Dr. Paul’s answer, and it wasn’t even the scream after Wolf Blitzer asked ‘would you let him die?’ and somebody in the audience yelled ‘yeah’?,” Grigsby said in the ad. “That wasn’t as horrifying as the silence from the stage.”

Grigsby said that her brother Steve “was too young for Medicare and he was too male for Medicaid.” Grigsby said that her brother had soon, “slowly, painfully” died from cancer five months after he lost his job.

“That’s what it means to let someone die,” Grigsby continued.

Grigsby then says if she could ask the Republican field one question, it would be if they really believed a person should be allowed to die because they don’t have insurance.

“Dear GOP candidates: Answer the question,” a slide on the ad reads.

Just after the debate Democratic National Committee chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) criticized the response from Paul and the crowd. Democrats have tried to use the incident to portray the Tea Party as being radical and a fringe group.

“Like the audience that shouted out “Yes!” to the question asked of Ron Paul – which was, would we let a 30 year old die if they were sick for six months and had no health insurance – that’s how dramatically out of touch all of the Republican presidential candidates and the Tea Party are with what moderate mainstream Americans want,” Wasserman Schultz said after the debate. 

Watch the video below: