I was listening to Hannity’s radio show on the way home and heard Karl Rove accuse Steve King of, just yesterday, refusing to disavow Todd Akin’s remarks on legitimate/illegitimate rape. He said that’s one of the reasons he thinks King will be a bad candidate for Senate in Iowa.

UPDATE: Here’s the audio and partial transcript of Karl Rove from from Hannity’s radio show:

ROVE: Now look, I must admit my personal view is he’s not a particularly strong candidate. He ran behind Mitt Romney in the most Republican district in Iowa. That just is unimaginable for a sitting Congressman who’s supposedly been able to build a lot of bridges across the line.

And I do, I personally do think he’s got some problems.

Yesterday he said he would not disavow Todd Akin’s comment that a woman’s body has the ability to distinguish between a legitimate and an illegitimate rape – whatever that means.

HANNITY: Steve King said that?

ROVE: Steve King said that YESTERDAY. YESTERDAY.

And look, he’s a strong member. But first of all there’s a sign of weakness here. When you’re a sitting Republican member of Congress and you’re running behind Mitt Romney as he’s losing the country by 3 points and by losing your state by whatever it was, 6 or 7 or 8, that ain’t a good sign for your future candidacy.

And second of all, when you refuse to distance yourself from a comment a lot of people in Iowa, especially women, are going to find obnoxious, it makes me worried.

But that’s not what happened at all. Here’s The Hill’s report on it:

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said Wednesday he considers former Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) a “friend” and told a radio interviewer he would not disavow the former GOP Senate candidate over his controversial comments on “legitimate rape” and abortion.

King, who is considering a Senate run in Iowa, neither embraced nor disagreed with Akin’s comments while speaking on the nationally syndicated Andrea Tantaros show.

“Well, I had never heard of that theory before it was uttered in Missouri. I have not seen anything come out since that, so I know nothing about that theory,” King said when Tantaros pressed him on whether he agreed with Akin’s comments.

“What I have said is that I’ve served here in Congress with Todd Akin. He was a friend going in, he’ll be a friend coming out. But what happened in Missouri isn’t relevant to what goes on here in Iowa.”

Steve King won’t disavow the man, Todd Akin, because he considers him a friend. He said he knows nothing about that ‘theory’ that Akin spouted and obviously didn’t support it. But as far as the man he’s served with, he considers him a friend and won’t let the media force him to do something he knows isn’t right.

But instead of reporting it accurately, Rove basically smears him. If Rove is as good as people tell him he is, perhaps he’d bother to get the details correct because there’s a world of difference between disavowing a friend and disavowing something that friend said.

But I have another question. What the heck is Andrea Tantaros even asking Steve King about this for in the first place? Is she trying to create division? C’mon Andrea, stop acting like a Lefty and focus on issues of substance.

One last beef with Karl. I’ve heard in interview after interview Karl lump Richard Mourdock in with Akin, saying Mourdock said God intended rape. Again, that’s not what he said Karl and if you care about integrity at all, you’ll stop smearing him too. He said God intends life, not rape. Do your dang research.

UPDATE: It looks like Mark Levin agrees with me:

Karl Rove flat out lied about Rep. Steve King

He told Sean Hannity moments ago that King endorse Todd Akin’s rape comment in Missouri. Here is the article to which Rove is referring:

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/281459-rep-steve-king-says-he-stands-by-todd-akin

King specifically did NOT endorse the comment. He said he would remain friends with Akin as they were friends when he served in the House. This is the kind of sleaziness conservatives are fed up with. And Rove went on national radio and smeared King with this lie.




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112 comments
RenowN
RenowN

Hannity will work this into an on-air Levin vs. Rove live slugfest--that is, if he has ANY brains, and that's looking doubtful.

Grumpa37
Grumpa37

Sometimes vigilance and persistence pay off. I think Rove has pulled in essentially all he will get for his cause. If so, he'll grab as much as he can and drag it back under his rock.

JohnMartin Mull
JohnMartin Mull

Smearing Steve "nothing wrong with dog fighting" King is like smearing feces.

hosepipe
hosepipe

Rove is out of the closet... he's a skunk...

Kind of cute but feeds on mice.. and stinks..

DizzyMissL
DizzyMissL

RightScoop said:

"Steve King won’t disavow the man, Todd Akin, because he considers him a friend. He said he knows nothing about that ‘theory’ that Akin spouted and obviously didn’t support it. "

I don't see anywhere in King's comment's that you posted that he does not support what Akin said. If I missed it, please point it out to me.

We better be honest about this stuff folks, or we will be screwed again and again.

JohnMartin Mull
JohnMartin Mull

So, Steve King does not know whether the female body does or does not shut down if it's a "legitimate rape" yet you feel he should be a Senator? Have you seen the polling of King vs the most likely democrat? He is a Christine O'Donnell/Sharron Angle candidate at the State Level. As George W Bush once said just before a major ass-kicking-"bring'em on."

DizzyMissL
DizzyMissL

I am sick of RINOs.

From this point forward, I, and everyone I know, will vote for the opposite of the person who Rove supports.

HarrietHT2
HarrietHT2

Shilling for Rove? are we, JMM? Your problem with King has nothing to do with Todd Akin's inept comment but everything to do with the fact that he is not a Rovite. You people are so obvious!

blueniner
blueniner

Karl Rove is a lier and got caught in a web. It was Karl Rove behind the scenes that was trying to sabatage Sarah Palin from running in 2012. Rove pulled all kinds of shennigans.

FOX should fire is azz, many people I know are tuning FOX out, and their ratings are starting to take a hit.

JohnMartin Mull
JohnMartin Mull

It's "liar" niner. Sarah Palin "sabOtaged" herself more than anyone else could ever accomplish. Even roger Ailes tired of her narcissistic ramblings after her "blood libel" rant. By then it was over for her as a politician but she could have clung on to her bi-monthly appearances on fox news but she didn't listen to Roger when he said "don't do it" in regards to the Gabrielle Giffords shooting. Now she is persona non grata even at her last holdout-fox news. I have sources who tell me she is in negotiations with "Dancing With The Stars" and that will surely be the last nail in what is already a very tightly sealed coffin of her "political" career.

blueniner
blueniner

Hey, John Wesley Harding you are full of so much shizz a colonic won't even help you. I am glad you are an FOX Ailes insider. Just keep dreaming on of her demise!

HarrietHT2
HarrietHT2

The Rovarian strikes again and while he's at it he hijacks the thread. Nice going there, bub.

JohnMartin Mull
JohnMartin Mull

That dream is now a reality. Sarah Palin burned every bridge she ever crossed and that's why Hillary Clinton would beat her in Alaska. She has one more gig left in her and that is following Bristol's hoofprints on DWTS. Whatever happened to the "fitness" book? Did she quit that too? Like she quit on the people of Alaska, her Bus to Nowhere tour and the AGOCC?

Laurel
Laurel

Listen to this audio again. Rove wants to be a puppet master and not take any slings or arrows and most especially no responsibility.

Nightsights
Nightsights

Fox News never should have resigned Karl Rove he has never been a conservative no matter what he named his PAC. It's time for the left wing republicans, like Rove to admit that every time they back a so called moderate politition {liberal} and tell us they have the best chance of winning, we loose. { Romney, Dole etc.} Rove and others in the establishment crowd have run rough shot over the Republican Party for years. That's why The Tea Party movement got started. If Rove is allowed to continue his assalt on real conservitives the party will wind up devided and out of power.

NJK
NJK

Steve King is a wonderful man and representative. Karl Rove, John Boehner, and Mitch McConnell are going to cost the GOP the Senate and House. This man just can't give it up. He thinks he owns the govt. You are a loser, Rove. Mark played the clip last night, he said what most good people would have.

fed-up
fed-up

I'm not sure what Karl Rove's end game is but it sure doesn't seem like he is trying to bring Republicans together as much as he is tryong to divide them.

Laurel
Laurel

I was thinking that myself. Obama could have no better helper.

davienne
davienne

karl rove lied about working for Reagan too....

12grace
12grace

What happened to the supposedly Conservative, Karl Rove ? He is talking dirt about patriot Steve King? Why? What is Rove's real agenda? Does the left have something on Rove and now they are pulling his strings?

PVG
PVG

I think Rove is becoming more desperate as he sees his power and influence erode away.

Flunking_retirement
Flunking_retirement

That is one of , if not thee, main problems right now with Republicans, the minute they succumb to this pc crap, they have compromised. They have taken the first step down the slippery slope to RINO hood.

I don't have to disavow a damned thing somebody else says, that's on them.

And another thing, Why do republicans have this notion, that they need to "communicate"? What in hell is that all about ? To whom? A hostile press?

Did Ike set down for in interview with Ribbentrop ? MacArthur or Nimitz talk to Tokyo Rose?

The only communication they need to do right now is with a fist! And yes, I think it is that serious, were talking about the survival of freedom.

SKL53
SKL53

Rove is a snake! He is AFRAID of the Tea Party because of his need to keep the ESTABLISHMENT RINOS just like himself in office. He is just as BAD as Obama, controlling elections! Trump is absolutely correct...what a LOSER!!! Hopefully the new Superpac to discredit Rove will take out this phoney!

freeperjim
freeperjim

Tokyo Rove keeps digging the hole deeper and exposing his RINO credentials for all to see...and reject!

TruthSociety
TruthSociety

Indeed Carl Rove is a master at propagating deceitful misinformation. I am so happy that Mark Levin has exposed his lies with the facts. No one does it better. Thank God for Dr. Levin's amazing abilities. And let us not forget it is Boehner and McConnell that are the masterminds pulling Rove (the marionette) strings in the cloak of the shadows. Boehner and McConnell are the old puppeteers and despise the tea party.

Richard
Richard

Why are we still listening to this loser? He is a Bush butt kisser and has helped destroy the Republican Party, which I am no longer affiliated. NO MORE BUSHES! I will stay home before I ever vote for Jeb or any other Bush.

repubboy
repubboy

Karl Rove is a spinner of tales a purveyor of what he wants it be , he's a BS artist like Obama but on a smaller scale.. But still a BS artist, that is what We don't need nor do We want.

So Mr. Rove with all due respect Please GO AWAY !

Tim
Tim

Wow, what Rove is doing to King is EVIL. He needs to shut his mouth and go far away.

Reject Bushism and Rovism, it's the only way conservatives will ever get a REAL majority.

K-Bob
K-Bob

I just wrote this over at Stacy McCain's place:

Jeffrey Lord is all over Rove and his #WarOnTheTeaParty. He's coined a new term, and it's gonna stick like "gate" has stuck on every stinking scandal since Nixon: Cotton Conservatives.

Way to be, Jeffrey Lord. Come on bloggers, jump on this one.

Mr. Lord has writeen a few articles about this, but I really like that term, Cotton Conservatives.

WorkAtHomer
WorkAtHomer

How can we ever believe anything Rove says? He obviously lies, distorts and smears other people to achieve his agenda. The actual facts regarding what Rep. Steve King said about Todd Akin and about immigrants is easily accessible in less than a minute via internet searches. Rove and Steven Law are provably lying.

WorkAtHomer
WorkAtHomer

Also, Steven Law who heads Rove's Conservative Victory Project state that Rep Steve King of Iowa likened immigrants to dogs - another total distortion/lie. Rove uses the same Alinsky tactics of Obama and propaganda strategy of the Nazi's, Communists and other malevolent regimes.

JohnCraven
JohnCraven

After the 2010 TEA Party landslide which took back the House of Representatives for the Big Whigs in the GOP, such as Karl Rove, since they were clearly incapable of doing it with the candidates they supported, many of us in the TEA Party Movement were dismayed to see so many "good" conservative candidates quickly become co-opted by the ruling elites in the GOP in Congress. They were either co-opted to vote as the Big Whigs wanted them to or they were marginalized and/or ostracized - can we say Huelscamp or Bachmann - and in some cases defeated in the next election entirely.

Many of us were left to scratch our heads as to how this could happen so quickly.

Well thanks to Karl Rove's conversation with Hannity today we now know how it happened.

I listened to his remarks, implying that Aiken was Harry Reid's candidate and that the candidate that Sarah Palin backed and the one that most of the TEA Party in Missouri backed were undermined by Harry Reid's machinations which described Aiken as the most conservative candidate in Missouri much akin to Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos in support of Hillary Clinton over Obama.

But then Rove went on to say that in the primaries in Missouri and elsewhere where TEA Party candidates or candidates who were eventually supported by the TEA Party won the primaries, that in the general election it was basically only financial kindness of Karl Rove and his SuperPac which kept these TEA Party candidates going through the General Election and that their original supporters were no where to be found. For instance, Karl Rove's SuperPac contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Sharron Angle and even to Todd Aiken until he made his stupid remarks and to many other TEA Party candidates such as Marco Rubio when the candidates they originally supported lost in the GOP primaries. These candidates original financial backers were probably tapped out by the time the general election came around and so these TEA Party candidates had no choice but to turn to the kindness of strangers such as Karl Rove.

Well, he who pays the piper calls the tune.

When many TEA Party candidates got elected in 2010 with the financial backing of Karl Rove and other Big Whigs from deep inside the beltway, they became obligated to Karl Rove and the Big Whigs who put them over the top in the general election. And that's how we saw so many good TEA Party candidates turn to mush once they got to Washington and how we also saw those who didn't turn to mush get ostracized by the Big Whigs in the GOP.

I don't know about Steve King. I do know what Todd Aiken said was dumb AND more importantly without any basis in biological fact. But Steve King is correct in not dumping on someone he considers to be a friend and Andrea Tantaros should know that.

Lately we social conservatives in the TEA Party Movement have been assaulted by the likes of Anne Coulter on the issue of exceptions for rape and incest - namely that according to Anne Coulter we must accept such exceptions. I think she speaks on behalf of the Karl Rove's and the Big Whigs who support Kris "Krispy Creme" Christi for president in 2016 and who don't support Rand Paul or anyone like him.

Just yesterday, we witnessed at the National Prayer Breakfast one of the most profound refudiations of the Anne Coulter position on exceptions for rape and incest when Dr. Ben Carson spoke out on behalf of so much that we in the TEA Party Movement support and did so fearlessly in Nero Ceasar Obama's face. He could have easily been one of those countless numbers of aborted children given the circumstances of his birth but he wasn't. Thank God. And no thanks to the likes of Anne Coulter.

Karl Rove, through such pundits as Anne Coulter and his bottomless money bags want to control the Primary process in the 2014 just so they don't have to do it in the general election. He and the Big Whigs want to "vette" our candidates better.

The truth is they want "Yes Men and Yes Women" that they can co-opt and control once they get to Congress.

This is why I genuinely believe we need an alternative conservative party to truly challenge the Big Whigs in the GOP - one based on our founding principles as so well spoken of by Dr. Ben Carson at the National Prayer Breakfast yesterday and so well presented by Ronald Reagan while he lived.

Else we will continue to see our TEA Party candidates marginalized and ostracized and co-opted in the next election and beyond.

John Craven

New Orleans

No one can accurately predict the future

resolution of the abortion battle. Much

will depend on whether society can be

awakened to the nefarious designs and

the subtle, satanic dishonesties of the

death peddlers.

Someone said: The brave walk in single

file, while the timid hide in crowds. It is

already late in the day for those who love

life and cherish the rights of all to leave

the crowd.

One thing is certain: we must continue to fight.

(The Death Peddlers, Fr. Paul Marx, p. 185, 1971)

Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity.

Put out into the deep and let your nets down for a catch.

[Luke 5:4]

Pope John Paul II [Castel Gandolfo, August 25, 1981]

Cd: Abba Pater Track 2: Cristo E’ Liberazione [Christ is Freedom]

Show me Thy ways, O Lord

Show me Thy ways, O Lord

Help me love when I’m hated

Spread joy unabated

Show me Thy ways, O Lord

(Hazel Shade, 1966)

Elvis Presley

Cd: Elvis – Peace in The Valley

The Complete Gospel Recordings

Track 21: Show Me Thy Ways, O Lord

[http://www.lyricsdepot.com/elvis-presley]

chatterbox365
chatterbox365

First Rove made claims he worked for Reagan and now he continues to lie and smear King. We need to continue to call Rove out on his lies.

2hairs
2hairs

The only election that Karl Rove has called is George W. Bush.

Steven Valdez
Steven Valdez

I'm gonna repeat, Foxnews is aiding and abetting that freaking liar, Karl Rove!

chatterbox365
chatterbox365

And it's pathetic that FOX renewed this jerk's contract.

c4pfan
c4pfan

I agree. It's been obvious to me that Rove is using the Fox News Channel to hurt conservatives. He got a 4 year extension? This is madness.

HarrietHT2
HarrietHT2

What's madness is paying to have expanded cable and subsidizing this bull&&ap. I cancelled my cable almost two years ago and haven't missed it a bit!

proudhispanicconservative
proudhispanicconservative

This is why I am not a big fan of Hannity, I think if this interview would've been done by Levin, the interview would've turned out very differently. Hannity is part of the establishment, and is soft on them as a consequence.

Nukeman60
Nukeman60

I don't watch Fox as much as I used to, as they seem to be leaning more and more toward the left these days. But when my TV is on that channel, I immediately turn it to another station when a few certain characters come on - Karl Rove, Ann Coulter, Jehmu Greene, Alan Colmes, and Tamara Holder are the most irritating that come to mind.

If I don't, I get an immediate headache. It's a Pavlov's dog sort of thing, I think.

DizzyMissL
DizzyMissL

I quit watching Fox News the day after the election. I am DONE with them.

Steven Valdez
Steven Valdez

When I find a liberal like Kristen Power more tolerable than the conservative guests, there's a problem, a big one, and it's easy for me to not even try to see what's on Foxnews.

StrangernFiction
StrangernFiction

The Left is right about one thing, this guy is a scumbag. Although I think their hatred is waning, as they've figured out he's one of them.

PAWatcher
PAWatcher

karl rove is the hatchetman for the bush's and GOPe.......his target is Sarah Palin and US. jebb wants to be president, or they want hillary in to finish the progressive utopia of all their dreams.

We and Sarah are their worst nightmare........We could shatter their dreamworld by voting strict conservatives like Sen. King into office. Fox is complicit with rove, IMHO.

Ember George
Ember George

Karl Rove....isn't that the plump, lily-white guy that totally screwed up the predictions for the 2012 election? Yeah, I thought so.

Loser.

sjmom
sjmom

Rove is going to destroy himself if he hasn't already. He needs to back off NOW before he destroys everyone else.

StrangernFiction
StrangernFiction

Rove is only hurting the statists. I hope he just keeps yapping.