Former Rep. Todd Akin keeps insisting that he was unfairly persecuted for his infamous “legitimate rape” remarks, which helped to cost him the 2012 U.S. Senate race in Missouri. Akin apologized for the remarks when they became a liability to his campaign, but recently published a book rescinding his apology.
Now, in a column today for WorldNetDaily, the far-right website publishing his new book, Akin claims that Politico reporters Anna Palmer and Tarini Parti “censored” his book by leaving out of their review his allegation that Bill Clinton is “a credibly accused rapist.”
Actually, the Politico story on Akin’s new book clearly mentions that Akin accused Clinton of rape, and Politico did not violate any of Akin’s rights by not publishing every single word he wrote in his book.
Do you want to know how the media work? Or, more accurately, don’t work?
When asked to comment about my instantly infamous “legitimate rape” comment in my new book “Firing Back,” I describe what Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney should have said: “A credibly accused rapist is giving the keynote speech at the Democratic convention in two weeks, and you want me to denounce a decent, God-fearing man for his inelegant comments about rape? No, not happening, and if the truth hurts, put some ice on it.”
Although Politico reporters Anna Palmer and Tarini Parti had a copy of my book to work from for their July 10 article, “Todd Akin returns to national stage,” they censored the text to read, “[Bill Clinton] is giving the keynote speech at the Democratic convention in two weeks. …”
In removing the phrase “a credibly accused rapist,” they not only stripped the logic from the quote – what, the reader must wonder, does the “ice” have to do with anything? – but they also denied legitimacy to at least one solid rape accusation against Clinton.
As I explain in the book, rape is a horrible crime. I have zero sympathy for those who commit it. For this reason, had I been in Congress in 1998, I would have voted with my colleagues to impeach President Bill Clinton.
