Referring to the Republican Party's attempts to "smoke" Senate candidate Todd Akin (R-Mo.) out of the race following his "legitimate rape" remarks, Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway compared the situation of Akin, her longtime client, to notorious cult leader David Koresh in a radio interview on Thursday.
The day after Akin made the "legitimate rape" remark "was like the Waco with David Koresh situation, where they’re trying to smoke him out with the SWAT teams and the helicopters and the bad Nancy Sinatra records," Conway told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on the "Washington Watch Weekly" radio show. "Then here comes day two, and you realize the guy’s not coming out of the bunker. Listen, Todd has shown his principle to the voters."
Koresh, a religious cult leader and accused child rapist, died with 54 other adults and 28 children in his compound in 1993 after a 51-day standoff with the FBI in Waco, Texas.
Akin's Koresh-like determination to stand his ground, Conway said, could lead more Republicans to send him their endorsement ahead of November, as former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) already did this week.
"You saw former speaker Gingrich there on Todd’s behalf at a fundraiser on Monday, saying it’s just 'conventional idiocy' that’s preventing people from backing Todd," she told Perkins. "And he predicts that come mid-October, everyone will be following yours and his lead back to Missouri, with their money."
Akin's spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
UPDATE: 4 p.m. -- Conway told The Huffington Post that she did not mean to compare the two men. "My comparison was to the tactics used to push Akin from the race, not to the men involved," she wrote in an email. "I would never compare David Koresh to Todd Akin."
Akin spokesman Ryan Hite told the St. Louis Dispatch that Conway's comment "was a stupid comment to make."
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