ST. LOUIS • Former U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin acknowledged in a television interview aired Thursday night that he regrets his catastrophic "legitimate rape" comment last year.
"I really lived that moment many, many times," he told KSDK-TV. " ... You think, `What would it have been like if I hadn't done that?' "
What he didn't say in the interview is anything that sounded like he is seriously contemplating an attempted political "comeback."
That notion, teased for days in advance by the TV station, was apparently just their way of pumping up an interview that ultimately didn't reveal any new information about the most dramatic wipeout in last year's elections.
The closest Akin came to saying anything about getting back into politics was when he was pressed by the interviewer, and answered: "I don't rule anything out."
The station's online written summary of the interview includes a question to viewers:
Do you think former Rep. Todd Akin can make a political comeback? Let us know what you think on Twitter by using the hashtag #AkinComeback. Share this story link with your friends and ask them to join in on the conversation.
Akin, the strongly anti-abortion former Republican congressman from Wildwood, had been favored last year to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. But his campaign unraveled after he said in a television interview that rape-induced pregnancy isn't common because "if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
The medically invalid claim was held up by critics as an example of GOP extremism on women's issues. Within days, the party was trying to get Akin off the ticket, to no avail. He ended up losing to McCaskill by more than 15 points.
"I really lived that moment many, many times," he told KSDK-TV. " ... You think, `What would it have been like if I hadn't done that?' "
What he didn't say in the interview is anything that sounded like he is seriously contemplating an attempted political "comeback."
That notion, teased for days in advance by the TV station, was apparently just their way of pumping up an interview that ultimately didn't reveal any new information about the most dramatic wipeout in last year's elections.
The closest Akin came to saying anything about getting back into politics was when he was pressed by the interviewer, and answered: "I don't rule anything out."
The station's online written summary of the interview includes a question to viewers:
Do you think former Rep. Todd Akin can make a political comeback? Let us know what you think on Twitter by using the hashtag #AkinComeback. Share this story link with your friends and ask them to join in on the conversation.
Akin, the strongly anti-abortion former Republican congressman from Wildwood, had been favored last year to unseat Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. But his campaign unraveled after he said in a television interview that rape-induced pregnancy isn't common because "if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
The medically invalid claim was held up by critics as an example of GOP extremism on women's issues. Within days, the party was trying to get Akin off the ticket, to no avail. He ended up losing to McCaskill by more than 15 points.