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Daleiden & Merritt (David & Sandra)

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Advocate

The Resume

    Investigative journalists, pro-life activists
    David Daleiden (Jan. 1, 1989 - ), founder of the Center for Medical Progress (CMP)
    Sandra Merritt (1958 - ), hardline anti-abortion advocate
    Assumed the aliases Robert Sarkis and Susan Tennenbaum, while posing as Bioscience researchers
    Released several exposes on Planned Parenthood, in which they appear to discuss the sale of fetal tissue and baby organs (Jul. 2015)
    Indicted on charges of tampering with governmental records, using fake driver's licenses, and for attempting to buy fetal tissue (Jan. 25, 2016)
    Individual charges were separately dropped, citing defects in the indictment process (June 13; July 26, 2016)

Why they might be annoying:

    They spurred a nationwide panic with a series of heavily edited videos.
    Their attempts to prosecute and shut down Planned Parenthood backfired.
    They claimed to want to draw attention to Planned Parenthood's illegal activities, but their self-involved smugness suggested they were self-promoters.
    Sandra had ties to the anti-Abortion Operation Rescue, known for endorsing measures to intimidate or - in some cases - kill abortion providers.
    They illegally infiltrated several Planned Parenthood branches, and secretly recorded staff members discussing business transactions.
    Their release of the undercover videos resulted in an upward spike of terroristic threats against Planned Parenthood branches throughout the country.
    The result was a crazed gunman, Robert Dear, attacking a Colorado Springs PPF clinic, killing three and injuring nine (Nov. 27, 2015).
    It wasn't entirely clear if the videos played a role in spurring the shooter to action, but he could be heard yelling 'no more baby parts' before opening fire (it later came out that he confided to police that he dreamed of being greeted in heaven by aborted fetuses thanking him for saving unborn babies).
    There was an ongoing debate as to whether a CMP video existed depicting a baby's brain being harvested on an operating table, after it was referenced during a Presidential debate by Carly Fiorina (the closest they came was a clip from a miscarried pregnancy that Daleiden inserted to illustrate a point).
    Daleiden openly suggested criminalizing abortions during an appearance on C-SPAN.

Why they might not be annoying:

    David described himself as 'the child of a crisis pregnancy.'
    They were masters of disguise who gave James O'Keefe a run for his money.
    They were elevated to overnight 'folk hero' status by the Pro-Life movement.
    Daleiden admitted to seeing Deborah Nucatola choke up and get emotional off-camera while discussing her time as an abortionist.
    Daleiden ranked #2, behind only Franklin Graham,in Newsmax's 100 Most Influential Pro-Life Advocates (2015).
    They were sued by the National Abortion Federation, who alleged that the two had violated PPF's members' privacy and threatened their safety (Jul. 2015).
    It was later revealed that California AG, Kamala Harris and her associates had 'targeted' Daleiden/Merrit when several leaked emails were made public, in 2016.
    They possessed an un-irascible level of calm over the course of their legal dispute, presciently confident they would emerge unscathed (they even rejected a plea deal in court).
    The Defund Planned Parenthood uproar they started led Congress to put John Boehner over a barrel with a government shutdown threat if he relented (the pressure led him to step down as House Speaker).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 11 Votes: 9.09% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 32 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 8 Votes: 37.50% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 125 Votes: 53.60% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 92 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 225 Votes: 52.89% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 23 Votes: 56.52% Annoying