Former Rep. Todd Akin Says 'Legitimate Rape' Comments Led to Spiritual Warfare
While promoting his new book, former Missouri Rep. Todd Akin recently spoke about the controversial comments he made in 2012 regarding pregnancy and "legitimate rape" that many believe cost him the senate election against Democrat Claire McCaskill.
Akin told The Brody File in a recent interview that he felt he was in the middle of spiritual warfare during the 2012 senate election, following the fallout from his controversial comments. Akin details his political experience in his new book Firing Back: Taking on the Party Bosses and Media Elite to Protect Our Faith and Freedom, released earlier this week.
When David Brody, host of "The Brody File," asked the former congressman if he felt he was in the middle of spiritual warfare following his comments, Akin replied: "I felt sort of peaceful, as though I was in a parachute. I sort of felt that on each side of me were these towering cumulus clouds. On the one side lightning and thunder of evil and the other side brilliant light of good and I sort of felt like I was literally on the front lines and evil and good were going at it all around me and I'm thinking, 'how did I get here so fast?'"
"If you want a mental picture, sometimes you just have to think of a bizarre picture but that's what it felt like. It was sort of I felt a sense of peace like I was protected but it seemed like there was this intense war between good and evil."
Akin also detailed his experience in a recent interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, comparing his downfall in 2012 with that of former Sen. Joe McCarthy, R-Wisconsin, saying that both he and the former senator had been "assassinated" by the media by "intentional and dishonest" misinformation. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, McCarthy was a senator in the 1950's who some believe lost credibility due to his staunch opposition to communism in the U.S.
"I use McCarthy as an example of someone who was assassinated by the media, so he had no credibility," Akin said, just as he believes he was politically assassinated by the "intentional and dishonest" media slant given to his rape comments made in 2012.
Akin received criticism two years ago when, on St. Louis's local Fox station, the former representative said that in relation to abortion in cases of rape, "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."
The former senator later sought to clarify his comments, saying that instead of saying "legitimate rape," he should have said "legitimate rape claim," and that he was speaking on how a woman's stress levels can affect a pregnancy.