Rachel Maddow discussed who she considered controversial vice presidential hopefuls in the Republican party during her MSNBC show Thursday night, including Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.
Maddow has harshly criticized McDonnell in the past for supporting a controversial bill requiring Virginia women to have an ultrasound in order to undergo an abortion. On Thursday, the Virginia General Assembly approved this modified version of the bill. In its original form, the bill required women to undergo transvaginal ultrasounds before all abortions, including pregnancies that were a result from rape or incest. The approved bill, which requires externally administered ultrasounds, excludes incidents of rape or incest as long as the crime was reported to police.
Maddow played clips of a radio interview McDonnell gave to WTOP, where he vehemently supported the ultrasound requirement. "I believe that this is something that helps respect the dignity of women by making sure that they have all the information," McDonnell said.
"Nothing respects a woman's dignity like forcing her into a state mandated medical procedure designed to show her pictures of the fact that she's pregnant because the state government assumes that without those forced pictures, a woman can't understand that," Maddow said sarcastically. "You will have done to you what Governor McDonnell wants done to you."
Maddow said that McDonnell now spends his time answering questions about the ultrasound bill. She played clips of interviews McDonnell gave last month in which the bill was a large part of the discussion. "This is what Bob McDonnell's life is like," Maddow said. "This is what it's like this month. This is what it was like last month too. This is what it's likely to be like from here on out."
Maddow said that McDonnell was now an "object of ridicule" and wondered if this impacted the way in which similar bills progressed in other states. Maddow's show called Pennsylvania's Gov. Corbett to see if he was going to weigh in on an ultrasound bill currently underway in his state. Maddow asked, "What do you say, Gov.? Do you want to nuke your vice presidential chances too? Come on!"
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