Steve King contradicts himself in support of Todd Akin

As he chimed in supporting embattled Missouri senatorial candidate Todd Akin, Iowa Rep. Steve King (R-IA) may have walked into his own verbal minefield.

While defending Akin, a fellow Republican, to KMEG-TV Monday, King doubled down on his defense of Akin and vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan's bill that would ban federal funding of abortion except for cases of "forcible rape." When reporter Heather Leigh noted that Medicaid currently covers abortions for victims of statutory rape or incest, King said he was not aware of any victims of that type.

"I just haven't heard of that being a circumstance that's been brought to me in any personal way," he said. "I'd be open to discussion about that subject matter."

That statement, however, seems to conflict with a remark he made in an online statement he made earlier this month clarifying his position on anti-dog fighting legislation.

"We need to respect humans more than we do animals," King said. "When we elevate animals above that of humans, we've crossed a moral line. For example, if there's a sexual predator out there who has impregnated a young girl - say, a 13-year-old girl - and it happens in America more times than you and I would like to think, that sexual predator could pick that girl up off the playground at the middle school, and haul her across the state line, and force her to get an abortion to eradicate the evidence of his crime, and bring her back and drop her off at the swing-set, and that's not against the law in the United States of America."

A spokesperson for King, Brittany Lesser, told Talking Points Memo Monday's remark had been taken out of context.

"What he was saying was, he personally does not know a girl who was raped," Lesser said. "He never says, 'I've never heard of that.' There's a fine line between 'I've never heard of that' and 'I don’t know personally anybody who's been raped. There's a difference. There is a difference."

KMEG'S report, aired Monday, can be seen below:

KMEG 14 - News, Weather, Sports for Sioux City and Siouxland |

[h/t Talking Points Memo]