KENOSHA, Wis. -- Three days after Indiana GOP Senate candidate Richard Mourdock sparked a firestorm for saying that pregnancies from rape are "something God intended to happen," Vice President Joe Biden linked the remark - along with another by controversial candidate by Missouri GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin -- to the Republican ticket.
"They made it very clear that they do not believe a woman has a right to control her own body," Biden said of Republican standard-bearers Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. "They can't even get up the gumption to condemn the statements made by 2 of their candidates for United states Senate."
This summer, Missouri candidate Akin designated "legitimate rape" as a scenario in which physical pregnancy could not occur, prompting Republican leaders - including Romney - to urge him to exit the competitive race.
Romney called Akin's language "offensive and wrong" but was less vigorous about Mourdock's statement, saying he "disagreed" but still backs him.
"It's not enough to tell me you don't agree," Biden said Friday, alluding to Romney's distance from Mourdock's statement but refusal to rescind his endorsement of the Indiana candidate. "It's having the moral courage to stand up and say what they said was wrong, simply wrong."
Biden has consistently been critical of the Republican ticket's views on abortion, but he has not specifically named either of the two controversial Senate candidates before.
The vice president's critique came at his last event of a day-long swing through Wisconsin. He will travel to Lynchburg, VA tomorrow for a rally, but the campaign has cancelled a planned Virginia Beach event due to an impending storm.
