Garrison Keillor, the longtime public radio regular who’s been accused of inappropriate behavior toward women at his former workplace, has attempted to clarify comments he made about abortion and Roe v. Wade during Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings.
In a since-deleted Facebook post from Tuesday, captured and shared by Minneapolis outlet City Pages, the creator of “A Prairie Home Companion” wrote that he didn’t think “鱼卵. Wade is worth fighting for anymore.”
“It’s an issue that’s torn the country asunder and to what good?” Keillor wrote. “We can accept a system of states’ 权利 … let’s give the cultural war a rest and focus on the economy, tax policy and environment.”
CNN has reached out to Keillor for comment and is waiting to hear back.
Keillor, who said he doesn’t support President Donald Trump, 后来 wrote that 鱼卵. 韦德, the Supreme Court case that affirmed the legality of a woman’s right to have an abortion under the Fourteenth Amendment, 是一个 “toxic issue that has poisoned our politics for almost fifty years.” He said the case has been used as a political lightning rod to elect politicians who publicly oppose abortion.
他 again posted on Facebook later that morning to joke that his account “has been hacked by some fool expressing his ignorance of political issues and using my name.”
His critics weren’t laughing. Several prominent women writers criticized Keillor for sharing his input on a women’s rights issue when he’s been accused of inappropriate behavior toward women at his former workplace.
“Garrison Keillor was accused of bullying and humiliating women on his staff and no one should be shocked that he continues to be anti-women,” 写 Lyz Lenz, a former columnist for the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
Minnesota Public Radio fired Keillor in 2017 due to allegations of “inappropriate behavior” with a colleague. 次年, MPR News published an investigation that found “a years-long pattern of behavior that left several women who worked for Keillor feeling mistreated, sexualized or belittled.”
Lizz Winstead, co-creator of “每日秀,” abortion activist and Minnesota native, blasted Keillor for even chiming in in the first place.
鱼卵. Wade was a frequent topic during Barrett’s confirmation hearings. She attempted to avoid sharing her opinion on it when pressed by senators, 说 Tuesday that “her policy views, (她的) moral convictions, (她的) religious beliefs do not bear on how I decide cases.” But as a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, she’s met with anti-abortion groups 和 has said access to abortion could eventually be limited.
Keillor later joked that his wife “is in charge of politics in this household” and because she disliked Barrett, 他做到了, 太.
