Christie Calls Rape Comments By Missouri Senate Candidate 'Asinine' & 'Reprehensible'

ASBURY PARK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie responded harshly Monday to bombshell comments about rape made by a Missouri Senate candidate.

Six-term congressman Todd Akin continued to come under fire Monday from fellow Republicans and Democrats due to his response to a question about abortion in cases when women become pregnant as a result of rape.

"If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try and shut that whole thing down," Akin said during a Sunday morning television interview in St. Louis.

Gov. Christie was asked about those remarks at a press conference in Asbury Park. He responded by calling Akin's response "reprehensible."

"It's [an] absolutely asinine, ridiculous statement by the congressman," Christie said. "He should be ashamed of himself to be talking about it in that way. It's stunning to me that somebody who's offering themselves for high office like that would have those kind of thoughts and use that kind of language."

While pressure is mounting from across the country for Akin to leave his Senate race against incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill, he is vowing to press on after stating he "misspoke" in the interview.

But he shouldn't count on Gov. Christie to campaign for him.

"I'm not going out there and working for him. I can guarantee you that -- not after those comments," Christie said.

However, in terms of Akin dropping out of the race, Christie did not take a stance, saying that "Every candidate has to make their own decision on that."

"That's his call to make," Christie said.

Two Republican senators, including Massachusetts' Scott Brown, called on Akin to resign his Senate nomination.

Reports also surfaced that the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee has withdrawn $5 million in advertising money.

The Romney campaign stopped short of calling for Akin to drop out, but responded with the following statement:

"Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan disagree with Mr. Akin's statement, and a Romney-Ryan administration would not oppose abortion in instances of rape," the statement read.

Meanwhile, Akin's suggestion that the bodies of women who are raped by force will generally reject a pregnancy was called "offensive" by President Barack Obama.

"Rape is rape and the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying and slicing what types of rape we are talking about doesn't make sense to the American people and certainly doesn't make sense to me," Obama said.

Christie said he was "happy" to add his voice to the public fileting of the congressman from "across our party and across the country."

"I'm happy to add my voice to that denouncement of his words and his thoughts -- because they're both equally bad," Christie said.

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In:
• Rape
• Claire McCaskill
• Mitt Romney
• Barack Obama