TPM2012

Todd Akin’s Wife Compares GOP Abandonment to Rape, Tyranny

Todd Akin’s Wife Compares GOP Abandonment to Rape, Tyranny

Rep. Todd Akin’s wife, Lulli Akin, says the Republican Party’s attempts to push her husband out of the Missouri Senate race — over his false assertion that women who are raped rarely get pregnant — are like rape itself.

She also believes the GOP’s abandonment is on par with the tyranny that launched the American Revolution.

Akin’s wife isn’t the first one to compare Akin’s explosive rape comments, and the ensuing fallout, to rape: Bryan Fischer said the party’s treatment of the embattled candidate had made Akin “a victim of forcible assault.”

Lulli Akin made the charge in a new National Journal profile, which reveals a family affair of a campaign — Akin’s campaign manager is his son, and Lulli is also a key player.

  • Lulli Akin says in the profile that she is not turned off by the refusal of national Republicans to contribute money to the race. She says small donations — and God’s will — will help her husband win:
  • “God can increase,” she said, citing the “Feeding of the 5,000” — a Gospel miracle in which Jesus uses five small barley loaves and two small fish to feed a multitude. The campaign will take small contributions, “respect them, and say ‘God, multiply it. Make it pay,’ ” Lulli Akin said. “It brought us through the primary, same way. We’re gonna see it again, because God wants to be honored.”

  • Lulli Akin echoed her husband’s disdain for Republican leaders:
  • Lulli Akin said that efforts to push her husband out of the race threaten to replace elections “by the people and for the people” with “tyranny, a top-down approach.” She added, “Party bosses dictating who is allowed to advance through the party and make all the decisions—it’s just like 1776 in that way.”

    She cited colonists who “rose up and said, ‘Not in my home, you don’t come and rape my daughters and my … wife. But that is where we are again. There has been a freedom of elections, not tyranny of selections since way back. Why are we going to roll over and let them steamroll us, be it Democrats or Republicans or whomever?”

    Todd Akin said his wife’s comparisons to 1776 were “a little more grandiose than the way I would say it” — but he did say that there is a “this tremendous sense of uprising I feel among the people I talk to.”

    Top Stories From TPM

    Ohio Republicans Push Law To Penalize Colleges For Helping Students Vote

    Wow, This is Pretty Epic

    Longest-Serving Openly Gay Lawmaker In The U.S. Can Now Marry Her Parter In Minnesota

    Eric Holder To Darrell Issa: Your Conduct Is 'Unacceptable' And 'Shameful'

    Florida Man Shoots Himself While Bowling

    House GOP To Hold Yet Another Obamacare Repeal Vote

    Disqus Conversations

    Click here to read the Disqus Commenting FAQ.

    Editor & Publisher

    Josh Marshall

    Managing Editor

    David Kurtz

    Associate Editor

    Nick Martin

    Assistant Editor

    Igor Bobic

    Reporters

    Brian Beutler

    Sahil Kapur

    Eric Lach

    Hunter Walker

    Frontpage Editor

    Zoë Schlanger

    News Writers

    Tom Kludt

    Video Editor

    Michael Lester

    General Manager & General Counsel

    Millet Israeli

    VP, Ad Sales

    Bruce Ellerstein

    Associate Publisher

    Kyle Leighton

    Assistant To The Publisher

    Joe Ragazzo

    Designer/Developer

    Matthew Wozniak

    Design Associate

    Christopher O’Driscoll