Republican Congressman Digs In; GOP Convention Site Braces for Isaac; Republicans Clarify Abortion Stance; Courting The Female Vote; Hurricane Center's Latest Isaac Update
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Happening now: The embattled GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin digging in, admitting he's even refused a personal request from his party's vice presidential candidate to get out of the race. Can Republicans across the country whether this storm? Plus, all eyes on an actual storm. Isaac may be headed toward the GOP Convention site in Tampa just as festivities get under way. We will have the latest update from the National Hurricane Center. It's about to be released. We will also bring it to you just as soon as it comes in. And an explosive outbreak of West Nile virus consuming much of the United States right now, the death toll already topping 40 people and the number of cases has more than doubled to over 1,000. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. But, first, the headache that won't seem to go away for Republicans. Just days before what should be a shining moment for Mitt Romney, the campaign continues to contend with a controversy over the embattled Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin. The Republican Missouri congressman is refusing all calls to get out of the race, despite the backlash over his now infamous "legitimate rape" remark. Our national political correspondent, Jim Acosta, is traveling with Mitt Romney in Iowa right now. He's joining us with the latest. Jim, what's going on?</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, before Mitt Romney accepts his party's nomination next week in Tampa, he will have to weather a couple of storms first, one named Akin, the other named Isaac.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): Mitt Romney came to Iowa with some new lines of attack aimed at getting not just his campaign, but his party back on message.</s>MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: His policies of substituting government for free people have not worked.</s>ACOSTA: Romney's up against a president who's spending much more time out of the White House.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But Republicans in Congress let -- no, no, no, no. Don't boo. Vote.</s>ACOSTA: And while his running mate, Paul Ryan, has whipped up excitement for the GOP ticket --</s>REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is President Obama's imaginary recovery. It's not here.</s>ACOSTA: -- the Wisconsin congressman is now facing questions about a bill he co-sponsored with embattled Missouri Republican Todd Akin, who caused an uproar when he said it's rare for women who are raped to get pregnant. That bill which would have limited taxpayer funding for abortions said only victims of -- quote -- "forcible rape" should be covered. Ryan was pressed by Pittsburgh TV station KDKA to explain that.</s>QUESTION: What is forcible rape?</s>RYAN: Rape is rape, period, end of story.</s>ACOSTA: Later on his campaign plane, Ryan was asked if he regretted the bill.</s>RYAN: I think we had 251 votes, 16 Democrats. I'm proud of my pro-life record. Mitt Romney's going to be president. The president sets policy. His policy is exceptions for rape, incest, life of the mother.</s>ACOSTA: The Obama campaign released a statement saying "Ryan may hope that American women never learn about his record, but they deserve an answer to why he wanted to redefine rape." The Romney campaign is trying to focus back on the economy, seizing on a new report on the massive budget cuts looming as part of the so-called fiscal cliff compromise. The Congressional Budget Office shows the cliff which Ryan supported would end years of trillion-dollar deficits. But it may also keep unemployment high. Still, it's the weather reports that may matter most. Forecasters are eying Isaac, a storm that could strengthen into a hurricane and head toward Florida just in time for the convention.</s>BOB BUCKHORN, MAYOR OF TAMPA, FLORIDA: Well, absolutely we're prepared to call it off. Human safety and human life trumps politics. I think the RNC recognizes that. The organizers, certainly Governor Romney recognizes that.</s>ACOSTA: And Mitt Romney will also be competing with President Obama next week. Mr. Obama is planning on campaigning here in Iowa, also in Virginia and in Colorado. That is a lot of distractions for Mitt Romney during his big moment, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: It certainly is. All right. Stand by, Jim Acosta reporting for us in Iowa. Republicans slowly seem to be coming to terms with the fact that Todd Akin is hunkering down for the long haul to November, whether they like it or not. Our senior congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, is taking a closer look at this part of this story. I know the Republican establishment, the leadership, the Tea Party leaders, none of them are happy with Akin's decision.</s>DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, not at all. In fact, I talked to an exasperated senior Republican source earlier today who said that the Republicans at a high level have concluded they have to "grind it out for a while," since despite throwing Todd Akin under the proverbial bus, backing it up, going forward again, he still isn't going to quit.</s>BASH (voice-over): Todd Akin is dug in and defiant.</s>REP. TODD AKIN (R), MISSOURI: This is not about me. This is not about my ego. But it is about the voters of the state of Missouri. They have chosen me because of principles that I stand on.</s>BASH: Appearing on two morning TV shows, the embattled GOP nominee for Senate made clear he won't buckle under the weight of party pressure to quit.</s>AKIN: It makes me uncomfortable to think that the party bosses are going to dictate who runs, as opposed to the election process.</s>BASH: This was the sentence that set off the firestorm.</s>AKIN: From what I understand from doctors, that's really rare. If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.</s>BASH: Akin apologized for using the term legitimate rape and now admits he was wrong to suggest the female body can somehow prevent pregnancy from rape.</s>AKIN: That's not true. I was misinformed, and I recognize that.</s>BASH: A pretty big mistake from a Republican member of the House Science Committee. But generally speaking, Akin's staunch anti- abortion views match those of the Missouri congressional district he currently represents.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I cringed, because, basically, I agree with his stance on abortion. But the way he said it, it could have been worded different.</s>BASH: Plenty of Missouri voters say they're still with him.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think people are looking for something to accuse Todd or to drag him down.</s>BASH: In the last presidential election, 39 percent of Missouri voters, nearly four in 10, called themselves evangelical or born- again, a lot, but not enough to unseat the incumbent Democrat. And Akin's comments caused a national problem for Republicans by turning the narrative to divisive social issues. It's why Paul Ryan, who co-sponsored anti-abortion legislation with Akin, called and asked him to quit, but failed.</s>RYAN: He should drop out of the race. He's not. He's going to run his campaign. We're going to run ours.</s>BASH: Privately, senior Republican sources are panicked their huge deficit with female voters will get worse, especially since heading into their convention, the Akin controversy shined a light on a party platform position opposing abortion without exception for rape. Anne Stone is a Republican for abortion rights.</s>ANNE STONE, REPUBLICANS FOR CHOICE: The Republicans don't know -- even know what women want. They are gender-blind and I would say gender-stupid when it comes to dealing with women and women's policies.</s>BASH: Even Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, who co-chaired the GOP Platform Committee, admits her party has a problem.</s>REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R), TENNESSEE: We have some very articulate, accomplished women who are elected officials at the local, the state and the federal level. They have all shown the ability to lead. And I think what people are wanting to do is to see women step forward and take a more prominent leadership role in our party.</s>BASH: What Blackburn and other GOP officials tell me is that even though they did not succeed in forcing Akin to drop his bid for Senate, they hope they at least were successful in signaling to those key swing voters, especially women, they don't stand for what he said. But as far as Akin's future goes, Republican officials tell me that they're just waiting to watch a couple of key dynamics play out. Wolf, those dynamics are, first of all, how much support he really thinks he has now that he's back from his consultant's office in Ohio. He's back in Missouri. And, secondly, most importantly, money, whether or not given the fact that the national party key outside groups have said they're not giving him a dime more, whether he can raise money from angry grassroots conservatives who are not happy that the party bailed on him.</s>BLITZER: The only person who's really, really happy is Claire McCaskill, who is the Democratic candidate who now thinks she has a pretty good chance of staying United States senator for Missouri, if, in fact, he stays in the race. There's another deadline at the end of September. He could still withdraw. That would be more complicated, but it would give the Republicans a chance to put somebody else on the ballot November 6.</s>BASH: It would be complicated, it would be financially costly for the party and for him. But it is possible. But at this point, it would take a lot to get him out of the race.</s>BLITZER: Yes. We will see what happens. Dana, thanks very much.</s>BASH: Thank you.</s>BLITZER: Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats alike are playing the blame game when it comes to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office suggesting that if the so-called fiscal cliff takes effect next year, the U.S. deficit will -- the U.S. deficit outlook will improve, but, and it's a huge but, scheduled tax increases and spending cuts could push the country into another recession and boost unemployment up to 9 percent. Let's bring in chief national correspondent, John King. He's looking at all of this for us. Will this new CBO report put this issue once again front and center?</s>JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is front and center in the campaign. Look, the Todd Akin controversy has dominated discussion in recent days. You heard Jim Acosta. Governor Romney wants to get back to the economy. Governor Romney today issued a very strongly worded statement blaming this problem on the president. He says there's lack of leadership on the White House part. The president issued a statement saying, no, it's the lack of leadership in Washington, it's a lack of bipartisanship and it's the House Republicans' fault, the president says, for not cooperating. This is front and center. Look, the Akin controversy will be with us. We're going to go into the platform discussions at the convention. But Governor Romney hopes to turn the convention much back toward deficits, debt, spending and jobs.</s>BLITZER: He's talking about those issues, he's on strong ground. If he's talking about social issues, some of the other issues, not necessarily so strong. What are the takeaways from the CBO report for both the Romney campaign and the Obama campaign?</s>KING: If you're the Romney campaign, you can say another trillion dollar plus deficit, what happened to the broken promise from then senator, candidate Obama and President Obama to cut the deficit in half in his first term? It hasn't happened. The president can say a deeper recession than he imagined. No cooperation from House Republicans. The president has his answers to that question. But Governor Romney can say promise made, promise broken. The president can say, this is proof that nothing can get done in Washington and he has to make the case that he is the answer and that if you let the Republicans win the election, they will just have more tax cuts for the rich and that won't help the deficit problem where he would get some from the rich. It's a familiar debate. We will watch it play out front and center. Will anything be done in the short term? You read this report, it's pretty ominous. Pretty ominous. A recession in 2013 is possible. Higher unemployment is possible. Before the election, will anything be done? No. Potentially a lame-duck session after the election, they can deal with this. That will be handily influenced by who wins, not only in the presidential race, but in the congressional races as well.</s>BLITZER: Excellent point. That lame-duck session, if you and I think November 6, we're going to be done, we're going to be working hard between then and the end of the year because that lame-duck session will have direct impact on all the people watching us right now.</s>BLITZER: Thanks, John.</s>KING: Thank you.</s>BLITZER: Thanks very much. Republicans may have more than just political storm on their hands. We're also tracking Tropical Storm Isaac, which could be headed straight for the convention site in Tampa. Plus, could Todd Akin's plans to stay in a critical Senate race mean an automatic win for the Democrats? I will ask the Obama campaign national press secretary, Ben LaBolt. He's here. He will join us live. And an explosive West Nile outbreak is spreading across the country -- the latest on the soaring death toll just reported by the CDC.