In the wake of the Todd Akin controversy, CNN has not only tied the negative fallout to the Romney campaign and the Republican Party, but has also turned a critical eye to the party's "very far right-wing" pro-life platform.
"I guess you're probably rubbing your hands with glee, aren't you?" Piers Morgan pandered to DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz on Tuesday, concerning Akin's refusal to leave the Missouri senate race. Morgan had called the situation "Romney's worst nightmare" on the previous night. [Video below the break.]
On Tuesday, CNN's Ashleigh Banfield took aim at the GOP platform's complete opposition to abortion as extreme, claiming it was written by the "very far right-wing" of the party and asking if Akin's comments on rape and abortion would "besmirch" the platform.
When news broke that Akin would remain in the race past the Tuesday evening deadline, CNN played to the Democratic talking points and reported it as bad news for not just the GOP's chances for a senate seat, but for the party in general:
Piers Morgan called the situation "pretty embarrassing for Mitt Romney" and questioned his leadership after Akin ignored Romney's pleas to drop out of the race. "So is this a black eye for the Romney-Ryan ticket?" he asked.
"But the fact that he is not dropping out, the fact that he co-sponsored legislation, you know, related to this issue with Congressman Ryan, I think is going to be a real ball and chain for the Romney-Ryan ticket with women and men in this country," said New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman on Tuesday's Piers Morgan Tonight.
"[I]f you look at his [Paul Ryan's] voting record and what he's actually supported in the past, he has supported provisions that don't allow for an [abortion] exception when it comes to rape. I mean, isn't that problematic? That is the connection, right?" anchor Soledad O'Brien gave her liberal take on connecting Akin to Paul Ryan. The president of American Crossroads, Steven Law, called her out saying that "that's the effort the Democrats will want to make."
"Do you think this does damage to the GOP writ large?" host Anderson Cooper teed up Democratic strategist Paul Begala.
CNN also repeatedly cast the GOP's pro-life platform as something extreme despite the Democratic party platform making no room for restrictions on abortion.
Host Piers Morgan expressed that "it's just extraordinary to me that the GOP would still want to have a platform that says that you're completely implacably opposed to abortion including in cases of rape and incest." He added that "It seems just so anachronistic to me."
Anchor Ashleigh Banfield found it "amazing" that "Republicans don't like big government and yet forcing a woman to take an unwanted baby to term is essentially saying keep your hands in my body. And I am struggling with that and I wonder how many other Republicans struggle with that as well."
"And given the gender gap Mitt Romney appears to be facing in this election, not to mention another three days of his own message getting upstaged by something else, it raises some big questions," noted Anderson Cooper.
