Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is facing backlash from Republicans after targeting U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance’s position on abortion in a national TV interview Tuesday morning.?

Following his speech to the Democratic National Convention the night before, Beshear appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to further discuss abortion rights and criticize positions taken by former Republican President Donald Trump and his running mate Vance of Ohio.?

“Think about what some people have had to go through because of these laws. J.D. Vance calls pregnancy resulting from rape ‘inconvenient.’ Inconvenience is traffic. I mean it’s — make him go through this,” Beshear said. “It is someone being violated, someone being harmed, and then telling them that they don’t have options after that. That fails any test of decency, of humanity. But here’s the thing — it also shows they don’t have any empathy at all. And a president and a vice president has to have empathy.”?

Vance, who has family ties to Eastern Kentucky, was asked in 2021 if victims of rape or incest should have access to abortion and said, “It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term, it’s whether a child should be allowed to live, even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society.”

Beshear has campaigned for Vice President Kamala Harris since she launched her presidential bid earlier this year, including in other TV interviews and on the campaign trail. Much of his Monday speech focused on reproductive rights, which became a theme of his 2023 reelection campaign in Kentucky.?

Republicans are interpreting the governor’s comments as a suggestion that a member of the Vance family be raped. The senator asked, “What the hell is this?” along with a clip of the Beshear interview in a post on X, formerly Twitter.?

“Why is @AndyBeshearKY wishing that a member of my family would get raped?!?” Vance said. “What a disgusting person.”?

One of the Trump campaign’s X accounts, @TrumpWarRoom, shared a clip of Beshear and said the governor “wishes for a member of JD Vance’s family to become pregnant due to rape.”?

Andy Westberry, a spokesperson for the Republican Party of Kentucky, said in a statement that Beshear’s frequent references to the Parable of the Good Samaritan “rings hollow when you condone vile attacks.”?

“Rape is an abhorrent crime that no one—no one—should ever endure, including Senator Vance’s family,” Westberrry said. “Andy Beshear should be ashamed for suggesting that any human being, let alone a political opponent, deserves such trauma. He must immediately retract this disgraceful remark and publicly apologize to the Vance family.”

Republican state Sens. Shelley Funke Frommeyer of Alexandria, Adrienne Southworth of Lawrenceburg and Lindsey Tichenor of Smithfield called for Beshear to “put his shameless and embarrassing political ambitions aside, issue an unconditional apology to those he has insulted, and reassess his role as the governor of our commonwealth” in a joint-statement Tuesday afternoon.?

“As he basks in his dimming spotlight, he not only brings unfavorable publicity to our commonwealth but also refuses to take responsibility for his careless words,” the lawmakers said.?

Beshear appeared again on MSNBC Tuesday morning to respond to Vance and clarify his comments. The governor said he was not implying that a member of Vance’s family be raped and called the insinuation “ridiculous” and a “deflection.”?

“As a man, J.D. Vance will never have to face any of this personally, but it’s sad that he lacks the empathy to be able to put himself in a different position and to understand why having exceptions, having reproductive freedom is so important in the first place,” Beshear said.

Beshear and Vance have had recent feuds in media coverage and public appearances while Beshear was under consideration as a possible running mate for Harris. She ultimately chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz ahead of the DNC.

Editor’s note: This story was updated Tuesday afternoon with additional comments.?