CNN's Piers Morgan cast Paul Ryan's pro-life record on the "extreme" end of the GOP and brought up Todd Akin to emphasize the party's gender gap, but his Republican guest would have none of it early Thursday morning at the Republican Convention.
"What about Paul Ryan's positions on social issues like abortion? He's pretty right-wing, to the more extreme end of the party. Are you concerned that that will be perceived as anti-women?" Morgan inquired. [Video below the break.]
"Well I think what the issue's that extreme is when Barack Obama has voted four times to say if you have a failed abortion and the baby is born alive, you aren't allowed to save it. That is what is extreme," retorted Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wisc.).
Morgan followed up, though. "But if you're trying to target women, which Mitt Romney has to do because he's way behind on women, is it really advisable to have people like Todd Akin rearing their ugly heads, coming out with all this guff about rape?" he asked Duffy, who came out swinging.
"You want to know what I think is ugly? I was a prosecutor. I prosecuted rape cases for adults and children. And the Democrat Party is going to try to use rape as a political football, that's a disgrace. I'm disgusted by it.," ranted the GOP congressman.
Morgan continued his liberal course by later calling the GOP platform "pretty, pretty right-wing" and adding it was "extraordinary" that the party wouldn't budge on the pro-life issue.
A transcript of the segment, which aired on Piers Morgan Tonight on August 30 at 12:34 a.m. EDT, is as follows:
PIERS MORGAN: What about Paul Ryan's positions on social issues like abortion? He's pretty right-wing, to the more extreme end of the party. Are you concerned that that will be perceived as anti-women?
Rep. SEAN DUFFY (R-Wisc.): Well I think what the issue's that extreme is when Barack Obama has voted four times to say if you have a failed abortion and the baby is born alive, you aren't allowed to save it. That is what is extreme. And I think we have to have a real conversation not just on social issues, but the real issues that Americans care about, which is the debt, which is the economy, which is jobs. Moms and dads across America, moms specifically.
MORGAN: But if you're trying to target women, which Mitt Romney has to do because he's way behind on women, is it really advisable to have people like Todd Akin rearing their ugly heads, coming out with all this guff about rape?
DUFFY: You want to know what I think is ugly? I was a prosecutor. I prosecuted rape cases for adults and children. And the Democrat Party is going to try to use rape as a political football, that's a disgrace. I'm disgusted by it.
MORGAN: Well actually, I thought Todd Akin's comment was a disgrace wasn't it?
DUFFY: And I called it a disgrace. But it shouldn't be used politically. You had virtually all Republicans stand up and say that was wrong, we don't approve of it, and now that it's being used politically – that's disgusting!
