>> i'm joined by krystal ball, co-host of "the cycle" and joy reid, also managing editor of thegrio.com. joy, we have a live picture, i believe, of the president who has just landed in chicago. he's been greeted by people. he was just met by rahm emanuel in the corner of the picture. on to the issue, joy, that is dominating so many republican minds, the use of this four-letter word rape. now, we had sharon engel some time ago suggest that a child who conceives as a result of incest russ rape should turn lemon into lemon aids. we had that wisconsin state rep who said some girls rape easy, to the latest richard mourdock . honestly, is this a political party that is now at ease with sexual violation?
>> it's frightening and i think that a lot of times democrats look at the republican party and think this might just be one or two fringe people who are sort of insane but when you drill deeper into the mindset really of the conservative movement , it's quite consistent. it is a deep ideological belief that life begins at conception which i think that's their belief and that's fine, but it's now bled over into an almost disdain for women and a thought that women really have only one function, to be the vessel for the production of children. anything else that women do is taking them away from their core mission. if they're working, if they're asking for equal pay, all these things take away. when you now get to this idea that the woman is so unimportant, so irrelevant, that even rape is not an impediment to her prime directive so she needs to suck it up, have the baby, and if she doesn't like it, the state will make her do it because that is all women are good for. i think it speaks to a disdain for women , speaks to an incredible callusness towards women and it is wider than we think. it is not one or two people. it is an almost common belief among conservatives.
>> joy, this campaign they've been throwing this word out on a regular basis.
>> absolutely.
>> krystal , if rape, and we accept that some men are the victims of rape, but if rape happened more often to men, would they be treating it in the way they are, these republicans who use it as a term with such -- as joy says, with such contempt.
>> and certainly if men were the ones who ever had to bear the child themselves, there would be a completely different attitude on i think abortion and choice as a whole, and as joy's pointing out, i mean, this is the platform of the party. no abortions, no exceptions, it doesn't matter if it's rape, doesn't matter if it's incest. the life of the mother. and this is not where the american people are, but i think what you see in instances like todd akin and instances like richard mourdock and sharon engel, is they are trying to come up with some mental internal justification for how this could be okay. so in todd akin 's case, he has to come up with some magical science that the woman's body has these magical powers to shut down production if it happens to be a rape, a legitimate rape, and with richard mourdock , he has to turn it into, you know, this is god's will, this is what is supposed to happen, so you then are supposed to bear that burden. i think it's all looking for a way to make this position, which is not okay, feel okay.
>> but the political fallout directly, joy, i want to put this to you, because republican christine todd whitman says richard mourdock 's comments damage all republicans and especially romney as the fight for the woman's vote intensifies. this could be a defining moment for romney , and he should immediately denounce both myrrh you can do and the comment. that's true.
>> yeah, it's absolutely true. mitt romney , now we have to decide is either powerless in the face of the religious right or a complete coward and refusing to accept his role as the supposed titular leader of the republican party to walk away from it. the fact that he can't demonstrates his weakness in the face of this group, this hard-core group within his party, none of whom, by the way, have the courage to look a rape victim in the eye and say it to her. they don't say it to women . they say it in general about women .
>> in general.
>> and romney doesn't have the guts to tell them no. this was his moment to show leadership. he failed again.
>> krystal , how do you explain the new ap poll that suggests romney has been able to erase the gender gap among women . it has him tied with the president.
>> and it has the president tied with romney among men, neither of which is an accurate reflection of where we actually are. this poll is an outlier. it's open for debate how wide the gender gap is, but the fact that one still exists i think is pretty apparent, and to joy's point about the political fallout, i think you're right. i think it does go to a question of character and leadership. we saw mitt romney fail in this area when sandra fluke was attacked by rush limbaugh and he was unable to condemn those attacks, but it serves as a reminder how extreme the republican party is on this issue. it reminds women of todd akin and the platform. it reminds them of their discomfort with mitt romney being the one that picks the next supreme court justice . so at this time in the campaign it could not be a worse moment for romney .
>> joy, also reminds me that paul ryan , who is on the ticket, is a co-sponsor with todd akin of legislation in this regard.
>> absolutely. the personhood amendments, the stuff about saying it would be almost a felony i guess for a woman to get an abortion. look how he parses it when ryan describes, well, romney is the head of the ticket and he supports exceptions for rape and incest because, you know what? ryan doesn't. there isn't a dime's worth of difference between paul ryan 's beliefs on this issues and mr. mourdock's. even if you look in that poll, i think they're instructive even when year outliers. in overall voters obama is ahead 48/40. when you drill into the likely voter model , they're tied. what is the preponderance in the poll, it's the southerners, the south. that poll is telling you romney 's base now is a group of very conservative mainly southern americans who have really byzantine in a lot of ways beliefs about women .
>> indeed. final question to you, krystal . 12 days to go, romney and ryan are skeschewing all interview opportunities. we showed him earlier running away from the press. i guess they just lock this down for 12 days and stop revealing what they really think?
>> well, i think it's a very bad strategy because if the election is held today, they would lose. you know, the national popular vote is basically tied, but if you look at ohio, if you look at wisconsin, nevada, iowa, new hampshire, the president has a lead and a substantial lead. so they have to do something to shake up this election in order to win and not talking to reporters is not going to get the job done.
>> and sending ann romney on "the view" might not be enough.
>> and the great bombshell from donald trump .
>> krystal ball, joy reid, thank
>> it's frightening and i think that a lot of times democrats look at the republican party and think this might just be one or two fringe people who are sort of insane but when you drill deeper into the mindset really of the conservative movement , it's quite consistent. it is a deep ideological belief that life begins at conception which i think that's their belief and that's fine, but it's now bled over into an almost disdain for women and a thought that women really have only one function, to be the vessel for the production of children. anything else that women do is taking them away from their core mission. if they're working, if they're asking for equal pay, all these things take away. when you now get to this idea that the woman is so unimportant, so irrelevant, that even rape is not an impediment to her prime directive so she needs to suck it up, have the baby, and if she doesn't like it, the state will make her do it because that is all women are good for. i think it speaks to a disdain for women , speaks to an incredible callusness towards women and it is wider than we think. it is not one or two people. it is an almost common belief among conservatives.
>> joy, this campaign they've been throwing this word out on a regular basis.
>> absolutely.
>> krystal , if rape, and we accept that some men are the victims of rape, but if rape happened more often to men, would they be treating it in the way they are, these republicans who use it as a term with such -- as joy says, with such contempt.
>> and certainly if men were the ones who ever had to bear the child themselves, there would be a completely different attitude on i think abortion and choice as a whole, and as joy's pointing out, i mean, this is the platform of the party. no abortions, no exceptions, it doesn't matter if it's rape, doesn't matter if it's incest. the life of the mother. and this is not where the american people are, but i think what you see in instances like todd akin and instances like richard mourdock and sharon engel, is they are trying to come up with some mental internal justification for how this could be okay. so in todd akin 's case, he has to come up with some magical science that the woman's body has these magical powers to shut down production if it happens to be a rape, a legitimate rape, and with richard mourdock , he has to turn it into, you know, this is god's will, this is what is supposed to happen, so you then are supposed to bear that burden. i think it's all looking for a way to make this position, which is not okay, feel okay.
>> but the political fallout directly, joy, i want to put this to you, because republican christine todd whitman says richard mourdock 's comments damage all republicans and especially romney as the fight for the woman's vote intensifies. this could be a defining moment for romney , and he should immediately denounce both myrrh you can do and the comment. that's true.
>> yeah, it's absolutely true. mitt romney , now we have to decide is either powerless in the face of the religious right or a complete coward and refusing to accept his role as the supposed titular leader of the republican party to walk away from it. the fact that he can't demonstrates his weakness in the face of this group, this hard-core group within his party, none of whom, by the way, have the courage to look a rape victim in the eye and say it to her. they don't say it to women . they say it in general about women .
>> in general.
>> and romney doesn't have the guts to tell them no. this was his moment to show leadership. he failed again.
>> krystal , how do you explain the new ap poll that suggests romney has been able to erase the gender gap among women . it has him tied with the president.
>> and it has the president tied with romney among men, neither of which is an accurate reflection of where we actually are. this poll is an outlier. it's open for debate how wide the gender gap is, but the fact that one still exists i think is pretty apparent, and to joy's point about the political fallout, i think you're right. i think it does go to a question of character and leadership. we saw mitt romney fail in this area when sandra fluke was attacked by rush limbaugh and he was unable to condemn those attacks, but it serves as a reminder how extreme the republican party is on this issue. it reminds women of todd akin and the platform. it reminds them of their discomfort with mitt romney being the one that picks the next supreme court justice . so at this time in the campaign it could not be a worse moment for romney .
>> joy, also reminds me that paul ryan , who is on the ticket, is a co-sponsor with todd akin of legislation in this regard.
>> absolutely. the personhood amendments, the stuff about saying it would be almost a felony i guess for a woman to get an abortion. look how he parses it when ryan describes, well, romney is the head of the ticket and he supports exceptions for rape and incest because, you know what? ryan doesn't. there isn't a dime's worth of difference between paul ryan 's beliefs on this issues and mr. mourdock's. even if you look in that poll, i think they're instructive even when year outliers. in overall voters obama is ahead 48/40. when you drill into the likely voter model , they're tied. what is the preponderance in the poll, it's the southerners, the south. that poll is telling you romney 's base now is a group of very conservative mainly southern americans who have really byzantine in a lot of ways beliefs about women .
>> indeed. final question to you, krystal . 12 days to go, romney and ryan are skeschewing all interview opportunities. we showed him earlier running away from the press. i guess they just lock this down for 12 days and stop revealing what they really think?
>> well, i think it's a very bad strategy because if the election is held today, they would lose. you know, the national popular vote is basically tied, but if you look at ohio, if you look at wisconsin, nevada, iowa, new hampshire, the president has a lead and a substantial lead. so they have to do something to shake up this election in order to win and not talking to reporters is not going to get the job done.
>> and sending ann romney on "the view" might not be enough.
>> and the great bombshell from donald trump .
>> krystal ball, joy reid, thank