David Axelrod: Todd Akin's Comments Are 'Inconvenient' For Romney-Ryan, 'Not Inconsistent'
David Axelrod: Todd Akin's Comments Are 'Inconvenient' For Romney-Ryan, 'Not Inconsistent'
Sam Stein at the Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/20/david-axelrod-todd-akin_n_1811693.html
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"When you look at who Akin's partner was on all the anti-choice legislation, it was Paul Ryan," said Axelrod. "When you look at the legislation that would limit a women's right to choose, even for victims of rape and incest, that is the Akin-Ryan position. And frankly, by endorsing personhood amendments ... Romney has gone there too. This is the prevailing position of the Republican Party."
"I think they find Todd Akin's comment terribly inconvenient," Axelrod said. "It is very inopportune. But they are certainly not inconsistent, when Ryan joined with him and tried to limit the definition of rape to forcible rape. What does that mean? They are trying to run away from what has been their own position and yet, while Akin's proposition was particularly egregious and outrageous, on the underlining principle of whether you are going to limit a woman's right to choose, and how rape victims are dealt with and how they would approach this issue, they are very much in line with him."
Romney's campaign said he and Ryan addressed the issue during an interview with WNUR in New Hampshire on Monday. (This post will be updated with their comments once they become available.) Romney briefly drew fire for seemingly endorsing a fetal personhood amendment in Mississippi, which would have classified a fertilized egg as a person under the law. But both he and his campaign have insisted that he never backed the measure and was simply stating his belief that life began at the point of conception.
While some Republican strategists have suggested that Akin should bow out of the Senate race, CNN reported Monday that Romney would not call for him to do so, though he did tell National Review Online that he found Akin's comments "insulting, inexcusable, and, frankly, wrong." RNC Communications Director Sean Spicer, likewise, told MSNBC that a decision on withdrawal would be left to Akin alone.
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