Todd Akin interviewer blames "brain fart" on lack of follow-up questions to "legitimate rape" quote

GlobalPost

It was the hottest television interview of the week. First, Missouri Rep. Todd Akin claimed that "legitimate rape" victims can't get pregnant. Then, journalist Charles Jaco failed to ask any follow-up question about the rape quote, after allegedly suffering from a "brain fart." Ladies, try not to get too hot and bothered.

Jaco, a Missouri-based journalist, has conducted many interviews on his KTVI show, The Jaco Report. But during what was perhaps the most explosive interview in the show's history, Jaco was suffering from neurological indigestion. Talk about bad timing. After the interview, multiple viewers wrote to the station, saying they were frustrated that Jaco didn't call Akin out for his controversial medical claims, according to Talking Points Memo.

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Jaco admitted that he made a mistake. “I dropped the ball,” Jaco told Talking Points Memo. He added later: “When you’re not 100 percent fully engaged, and you’ve got anything else on your mind, you’ll miss stuff...We all brain fart sooner or later, and this is mine.”

The interview made headlines after Jaco asked Akin about his "no exceptions" policy on abortion. Akin responded that pregnancy from rape is "really rare," and added that, “if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

Fellow Republicans have subsequently tried to distance themselves from Akin's controversial comments.

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