AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. We’re broadcasting from PBS station WEDU in Tampa, Florida. This is “Breaking With Convention: War, Peace and the Presidency,” Democracy Now!'s special coverage of the Republican National Convention, inside and out. And if you miss any one of our two hours, you can go to our website at democracynow.org. I'm Amy Goodman.

One of the people I spoke to on the floor of the convention last night was a man in a top hat, bearing a striking resemblance to the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln. George Engelbach previously served one term in the Missouri House of Representatives, alongside Todd Akin, the congressman who’s now running against Claire McCaskill for the Senate, who ignited a firestorm by saying it’s rare for women to become pregnant from rape because, quote, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” Well, George Engelbach last night—he did run unsuccessfully for re-election, now a member of the Missouri Republican delegation at the national convention here in Tampa.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you think of your senatorial candidate, Todd Akin, and his comments?

GEORGE ENGELBACH: One, I served with them for two years in the Missouri House. I never, ever heard him say anything derogatory or off-color. He has apologized. He’s asked for forgiveness. And since when can we not forgive? I forgive. If there was no forgiveness, we are all in trouble.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, the entire leadership here at the Republican convention—Paul Ryan made a personal call to him—Romney—they’ve called for him to step down.

GEORGE ENGELBACH: I don’t know nothing about that.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, they’ve called publicly for him to step down.

GEORGE ENGELBACH: I don’t pay any attention to what they’re doing.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you think, if he stepped down, someone else would have a better chance of—

GEORGE ENGELBACH: He’s not going to step down. He’s not going to step down.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about his views on abortion. I notice you have a pin there. What does that pin represent?

GEORGE ENGELBACH: That’s the size of the feet of an eight-week-old fetus.

AMY GOODMAN: So what was wrong with what he said? Do you feel that Congressman Akin was unfairly targeted?

GEORGE ENGELBACH: He said what he said, I feel, in a wrong connotation. It’s documented that there is a relatively low conception rate with highly traumatic rapes, rapes that are just brutal. So—

AMY GOODMAN: Is there another kind of rape?

GEORGE ENGELBACH: Certainly.

AMY GOODMAN: What’s the other kind of rape?

GEORGE ENGELBACH: Well, if you’d, for example, rape some girl or lady that was sort of inebriated, maybe a little bit high on drugs or something like that, that’s going on all the time, “slip a Mickey,” as we call it. When I grew up, we called them “slipped somebody a Mickey.” And, you know, it’s non—it’s not consensual, and it still happens. And that’s the rape that is really hard to prove, many times, but—

AMY GOODMAN: But is it still rape?

GEORGE ENGELBACH: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: So, why not say it’s as brutal as any other kind?

GEORGE ENGELBACH: He had a statement that he made, and I’m not defending that. I’m saying I forgive him. And if—I’m not here to really talk about his rape. I’m here to make it enjoyable for everyone at the convention and to get some enjoyment myself, and sometimes hear what somebody else has to say.

AMY GOODMAN: If Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney become the president and vice president, do you have hope that abortion will be abolished in America?

GEORGE ENGELBACH: Well, I think abortion is growing—going away, just because of education and because of—people are realizing what it does to the society to have abortion in place. I don’t know that it will totally go away, not in my lifetime.

AMY GOODMAN: Mitt Romney was pro-choice before he was anti-choice. He supported abortion before; he now speaks out against it. Does that disturb you?

GEORGE ENGELBACH: No. People change their views. You ask me about the party versus what Lincoln’s party was. He just has chosen to take on a different view. I used to be a supporter of the Democrat Party, until Mr. Gephardt decided that he wanted to be pro-choice. And I can’t believe in killing life. You don’t know how many hours I’ve set up to try to keep an animal alive that—newly born in the cold of winter.

AMY GOODMAN: That was George Engelbach. He previously served one term in the Missouri House of Representatives alongside Todd Akin. He’s now a member of the Missouri Republican delegation and looks and dresses remarkably like the first Republican president, Abe Lincoln.