Brownback slams Romney for not calling abortion 'murder'
Sen. Sam Brownback's campaign criticized Romney Monday for not calling abortion murder.
WASHINGTON (CNN) - Continuing to search for traction with social conservatives, Sen. Sam Brownback's campaign offered a fresh attack on GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney Monday, criticizing the former Massachusetts governor for not directly calling abortion "murder" at a recent campaign event.
"Romney says life begins at conception, but doesn't think abortion is murder, and Romney says he's pro-life but he thinks states should be able to choose to allow abortion," Martin Gillespie, the Kansas Republican's political director, said in a statement.. "Every time he tries to clarify, as he tried to do last week, it becomes more and more confusing."
At a campaign event in Laconia, New Hampshire last Tuesday, Romney did not directly call abortion murder, saying murder "means different things to different people."
Responding to the Brownback campaign's comments, Kevin Madden, a spokesman for Romney, said, “Governor Romney is firmly pro-life and is he will continue to encourage, promote and defend pro-life policies. Advocacy of these policies and bringing others towards a pro-life position is an important part of the governor’s efforts.”
This comes the day before 10 GOP presidential candidates square-off in New Hampshire at a debate sponsored by CNN, WMUR-TV, and the New Hampshire Union Leader. The debate will air on CNN at 7 p.m. ET. CNN Pipeline will also stream video of the debate free of charge that evening.
- CNN Ticker Producer Alexander Mooney
The winner of the Republican nomination will NOT be someone who talks about issues. The winner will be someone who feeds into the political propaganda and feeds the conservative frensy.
How do you do that? Talk ONLY about abortion and gay marriage. Forget the issues, keep those hot-button conservative issues in the news, and you might just gain the nomination. Good politics, Brownback.
Brownback is a complete moron and ideologue.
I think CNN hurt themselves the most!!
I watched the democratic debates on CNN yesterday, and I was very disappointed in the way CNN didn’t give all the candidates equal time to speak (not even close to equal time!).
The first primary is six months away, and most voters have not decided for sure whom they are going to vote for. A debate should be the ideal time for voters to hear from all the candidates so that we can decide who we think best represents our viewpoints.
CNN put Obama, Clinton and Edwards in the middle and by far gave them the most time to speak, followed by Richardson and Biden, and then by Dodd. Gravel and Kucinich were stuck at the far ends and barely got to say anything!
I realize that Obama, Clinton and Edwards are the front-runners in the poles, but does that mean the race is over? Has the media decided they are our only three real choices, or that underdogs like Gravel and Kucinich don’t matter since they’re not up in the poles? It’s way too early for that, and as a voter, I wanted to hear from all the candidates.
I was very, very disappointed in CNN. I expected CNN to run the debate fairly, with each candidate getting equal time to speak. Shame on you.
Micaela, Registered Democrat
sleezy move by brownback. he is ruthless for being so "christian." His attacks on Romney are hollow.
Romney's comments simply show that he really cares about the issue. If you want to convince people abortion si wrong and move the debate forward, you would avoid calling people murderers, obvously. To nail someobdy for trying to advocate pro life stances, becuase they refused to use rhetoric that inflames and pushes away others is shallow and lame. but all in a days work in politics. i am not suprised
brownback is very unimpressive. Where is the competence and innovation with him. He is a professional speech giver, a legislator. Nobody would vote for him in a general election. He has no shot, i wish he would drop out.