On Thursday, we released a video of Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin telling an audience that he had once been arrested for blocking access to a reproductive health clinic. At a press conference the following day in Kansas City, Akin told the Associated Press that he had been arrested “about 25 years ago or so,” and a campaign aide “promised to provide details of the arrest later Friday.” But the campaign failed to come through.
Monday and Tuesday passed with no new details, and the AP just reported that the Akin campaign is now flat out refusing to make good on its promise:
Akin campaign adviser Rick Tyler said Wednesday that no charges ever were filed but that Akin’s campaign would not provide any further details about the incident.
One can’t help but wonder what the campaign is hiding. Is there something damaging in the details of the arrest or the protest he had joined? Or did Akin perhaps fudge the facts about an arrest that never happened?
We shouldn’t be left guessing. An arrest is a matter of public record, and we’re talking about an individual running for the U.S. Senate. Akin should come clean about what did, or did not, happen.
