Jon Kyl: Embassy Statement Was Like Telling A Raped Woman She ‘Asked For It’

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Sen. Jon Kyl (AZ), the No. 2 Republican in the chamber, told reporters Wednesday that a U.S. Embassy statement condemning an anti-Muslim movie — which was reportedly issued before the attack in Libya that killed four American diplomats — was akin to blaming a victim for rape.

Here’s what Kyl said, as quoted by Roll Call reporter Meredith Shiner:

“It’s like the judge telling the woman who got raped, ‘You asked for it because of the way you dressed.’ OK? That’s the same thing. ‘Well America, you should be the ones to apologize, you should have known this would happen, you should have done — what I don’t know — but it’s your fault that it happened.’ You know, for a member of our State Department to put out a statement like that, it had to be cleared by somebody. They don’t just do that in the spur of the moment.”

A spokesman for Kyl did not respond to a request for further comment.

UPDATE 6:10 P.M. ET

Kyl’s aide emails TPM: “Senator Kyl’s comments were meant to demonstrate that innocent victims of violence need never apologize to those committing the heinous acts of violence.”

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