Boehner: GOP Should Be More ‘Sensitive’ to Women Voters, Support Gay Candidates
As the National Republican Congressional Committee beganholding seminars on how to avoid becoming the next Todd Akin this week with aides of 2014 GOP candidates, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) spoke out on what he sees as a need for Republicans to be more “sensitive” to women voters. CNN’s Dana Bash reported on comments made by Boehner during a press conference Thursday.
‘We’re trying to get them to be a little more sensitive, you know?” Boehner said of his Republican members. “You look around the Congress, there are a lot more females in the Democratic caucus than there are in the Republican caucus. And some of our members just aren’t as sensitive as they ought to be.”
Bash described the regular GOP “media training” as having an extra focus this year on “avoiding the gaffes” and how to handle subjects like abortion “that certainly are sensitive and prone to foot-in-mouth moments.” In a recent interview with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), Bash asked if Republicans just don’t know “how to talk to women.”
Unlike Boehner, Cantor was far less willing to address the problem directly, highlighting the Republican women in the House and the party’s policy to “appeal to both men and women voters.” Bash pointed out that of the 232 Republicans in the House, only 19 are women.
In the same press conference where Boehner was asking about appealing to women voters, he was also asked a question about whether he thinks the Republican Party should support the at least two openly gay GOP candidates who have announced for 2014. He answered simply, “I do.”
Watch video below, via CNN:
[photo via screengrab]
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