GOP operative Mary Matalin on Sunday said that the Republican Party would mount a third-party or write-in campaign to defeat Rep. Todd Akin (R), whose bid to defeat Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is in danger after he suggested women could not get pregnant by “legitimate rape.”

Matalin told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that Republicans would find a way to run Missouri congressional candidate Ann Wagner against Akin after he slipped nearly 15 points in recent polls, now trailing McCaskill 49-44.

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“George, he may have dug in, but he’s not going to have a shovel to continuing digging,” Vice President Dick Cheney’s former top adviser explained. “Because he’s not going to have any money. George Will is right. We need to win Missouri. We’re going to win Missouri. Ann Wagner is going to end up being our candidate. The party is going to get Ann Wagner in.”

“So you’re just convinced that he’s going to get out?” Stephanopolous asked.

“Or we’ll run a third party, we’ll run a write-in,” Matalin insisted. “We can do it. We have the money to do it. We are going to transfer the money. It’s not as easy as — but it’s a good state for [presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt] Romney. And we’ll get it back.”

“What this Akin thing has done is turned — it’s not going to affect our convention. Romney — we had that [anti-abortion] platform forever,” she continued. “[Democrats] have turned their convention into an anti-Akin thing.”

Watch this video from ABC’s This Week, broadcast Aug. 26, 2012.

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(h/t: Think Progress)