As JD Vance hits Andy Beshear for abortion comments, the governor says it’s a ‘deflection’
Gov. Andy Beshear’s words are making the rounds on social media and conservative circles.
But it’s not anything he said on the stage at the Democratic National Convention Monday night; it’s about what he said in a Tuesday morning interview on the MSNBC program “Morning Joe.”
When talking to a host about the lack of exceptions for rape and incest in Kentucky’s trigger ban on abortion, Beshear brought up the position of GOP vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-OH, on pregnancy resulting from rape.
In 2021, Vance called such pregnancies “inconvenient.”
“’Inconvenience’ is traffic. I mean, it’s — make him go through this,” Beshear told MSNBC host Mika Brezinski. “It is someone being violated, someone being harmed, and then telling them that they don’t have options after that. That fails any test of decency, of humanity.
“But here’s the thing — it also shows they don’t have any empathy at all. And a president and a vice president has to have empathy.”
A widely-circulated clip of Beshear’s answer on television cut off after the words “make him go through this.”
Many have weighed in online, arguing that Beshear is advocating for someone in Vance’s family to be raped.
Vance himself said that.
“What the hell is this?” Vance asked in a post to X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. “Why is (Beshear) wishing that a member of my family would get raped?!? What a disgusting person.”
Kentucky Republicans also excoriated Beshear.
“All this talk about the Parable of the Good Samaritan rings hollow when you condone vile attacks. Rape is an abhorrent crime that no one — no one — should ever endure, including Senator Vance’s family,” Andy Westberry, the Republican Party of Kentucky’s spokesperson, wrote in a statement.
“Andy Beshear should be ashamed for suggesting that any human being, let alone a political opponent, deserves such trauma. He must immediately retract this disgraceful remark and publicly apologize to the Vance family.”
Central Kentucky’s Sixth Congressional District Congressman Andy Barr had some harsh words to say on the matter as well.
“Andy Beshear just crossed a line with his reckless rhetoric. Suggesting that JD Vance’s family deserves horrific violence is beyond disgraceful. This is not the leadership Kentucky needs. Beshear must retract his statement and issue a public apology to the Vance family immediately. Kentucky deserves a governor who stands up for decency, not one who engages in vile attacks,” Barr wrote in a post to X.
Beshear has not apologized.
However, he was offered the chance to respond to Vance’s criticism on a later MSNBC program filmed at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The host asked him if he was suggesting in his comments that he wanted a member of Vance’s family be raped.
The 46-year-old governor responded “of course not.”
“It’s ridiculous, but it’s also deflection. J.D. Vance knows that he and Donald Trump are so wrong on this issue, and so he’s trying to make himself a victim,” Beshear said. “Listen, Hadley Duvall was a victim... As a man, JD Vance will never have to face any of this personally, but it’s sad that he lacks the empathy to be able to put himself in a different position and to understand why having exceptions, having reproductive freedom is so important in the first place.
“Obviously, I’d never wish harm on anyone. It’s just, again, deflection, trying to make himself and Donald Trump the victims.”
Beshear referenced Hadley Duvall, an outspoken Kentucky native and abortion rights activist who has appeared in statewide and national media campaigns recounting her story of being raped and impregnated by her stepfather at age 12.
The comment from Vance that precipitated Beshear’s initial criticism came from a 2021 interview during Vance’s run for Senate when he was asked about exceptions to abortion bans.
“It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term, it’s whether a child should be allowed to live, even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society,” Vance said.
This story was originally published August 20, 2024 at 3:17 PM.
