Foster Friess, the wealthy backer of the pro-Rick Santorum super PAC, said Thursday night that he was joking when he suggested women should put “Bayer aspirin between their knees” as a form of birth control.

Viewers didn’t get the “context of that joke,” Friess told MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell. Back in his day, Friess said, the birth control pill wasn’t available, so the thought of aspirin used as birth control would be pretty “silly” and “funny,” he said. 

Friess also used the interview as an opportunity to attack the Obama administration’s birth control rule, saying that forcing insurance plans to cover birth control is like asking Muslim soup kitchens to serve pork. 

Friess said he didn’t talk to Santorum about the comment Thursday. His campaign denied to comment to TPM on the statement. Santorum in Michigan Thursday also called it a “bad joke.”