Akin says he 'misspoke some words' in 2012. Akin: Some staff 'conceived in rape'

A defiant Todd Akin on Thursday conceded he “misspoke some words” regarding his infamous 2012 comments on rape, but he cast blame on those in both parties for politicizing them.

In an interview on MSNBC, the 2012 Missouri Republican Senate nominee didn’t spare anyone criticism, calling out by name Bill and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party, Karl Rove, Senate Republican leadership and the political media.


“I misspoke some words,” Akin conceded to host Chuck Todd.

That’s as far as his remorse went, though, as the conservative firebrand continues his re-emergence to promote his new book and rail against the political establishment that largely abandoned him after his controversial comments.

On Thursday, Akin addressed his remarks right off the bat, saying “Legitimate rape is a law enforcement term, and it’s an abbreviation for legitimate case of rape. Do you know anybody who thinks rape is legitimate? That doesn’t even make sense. I know no conservatives who think rape is legitimate,” he said.

After winning an upset victory in the Missouri Republican primary, Akin was asked about abortion in the case of rape. “First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” he said in August 2012. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” The candidate apologized and ultimately lost to incumbent Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill.

But in his new book, “Firing Back” — a publishing decision that is greatly upsetting Republicans who are trying, ahead of the November midterm elections, to combat accusations from Democrats of a war on women — Akin said he retracts his apology and blamed others for twisting his words.

Akin showed no discomfort speaking about the subject of rape on Thursday, even mentioning that some members of his staff were “conceived in rape.”

The former congressman, who spent 12 years in Congress, stayed on the attack on Thursday, calling out those from both parties. When Todd asked why Akin would come back just before the November midterms, a move that might hurt his party, he slammed the party’s establishment for trying to weed out conservative challengers.

“You’ve got Karl Rove and certain people in the Senate leadership, they don’t believe anymore in the process of what we call a primary election,” he said in reference to the Fox News contributor and Republican strategist. “They think that the people in primaries in various states are too stupid to pick the right person, so they’re putting a tremendous amount of Republican money in a primary.”

Akin also took aim at Democrats who he said are manufacturing the war on women, echoing a few claims he leveled in his book. He criticized the party for welcoming former President Bill Clinton to the 2012 Democratic National Convention, citing several “examples of Bill Clinton being involved in assault on women or indecent behavior with women.” He also referenced recent reports that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the potential 2016 Democratic presidential front-runner, legally represented an accused rapist early in her career.

Thursday’s interview was at times contentious, with the MSNBC host citing scientific studies that found that stress and adrenaline levels have no bearing on pregnancy and saying that Akin was endangering the party that has largely denounced him.

When Todd said it sounded as though Akin still wanted to run for office, the embattled former congressman said: “No, I’m just taking one thing at a time.”