When Congressman Todd Akins decided on the last minute to cancel an appearance on CNN's "Pierce Morgan Night" show, the anchor was not left struggling for words to fill up empty space allotted for the interview with Akins. Instead, Morgan used to opportunity to bash the 65-year-old senate candidate, who had been receiving enough derision for his "legitimate rape" comment as it is.
The British anchor said, "You're looking live at the empty chair Todd Akin was supposed to be sitting in for a live, prime-time, exclusive interview," he went on to add, "If you don't keep your promise to appear on the show, then you are what we would call in Britain a gutless little twerp," as shown on the show Monday night.
Akins has other battles to combat, especially with increasing pressure from the GOP urging him to quit the senate race Tuesday before 5.00pm. According to reports, the 65-year-old remains adamant on staying in the race saying, "We are going to continue this race for the U.S. Senate...I am no quitter," as reported by the Washington Post.
In a Sunday interview Akins said "It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that is really rare...If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down," as reported on BBC News.
But naturally were the comments bound to cause raucous they did not only were they inaccurate but came across as incredibly insensitive. Almost immediately, prominent republican leaders began ostracizing the 65-year-old. Many Republican leaders have urged him to quit for the sake of the party. Senior Republican officials, including presumed GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney who called the comments "insulting, inexcusable, and frankly wrong," as reported by the Washington Post.
The head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Senator John Cornyn, has also suspended all political support for the congressman and trying best, to distance his party from the unpopular figure.
In a statement, Cornyn said, "I recognise this is a difficult time for him, but over the next 24 hours, congressman Akin should carefully consider what is best for him, his family, the Republican party, and the values that he cares about and has fought for throughout his career in public service," as reported by the Guardian.
On Tuesday Akins released a "forgiveness" ad campaign, in which he says, "Rape is an evil act...I used the wrong words in the wrong way, and for that I apologize," as reported by the Washington Post. '
President Obama announced in an interview on Monday, "Rape is rape, and the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we are talking about doesn't make sense to the American people and certainly doesn't make sense to me... So what I think these comments do underscore is why we shouldn't have a bunch of politicians, a majority of whom are men, making health-care decisions on behalf of women," according to the Washington Post.
