Congressman Blake Farenthold (R-TX) suggested that if Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), and Susan Collins (R-ME) were men from south Texas, he would duel them.
Farenthold blames these moderate senators for the Senate’s failure to repeal and replace Obamacare.
The Texas congressman told local Texas radio host Bob Jones on Friday, “Some of the people that are opposed to this, there are female senators from the Northeast. … If it was a guy from South Texas, I might ask him to step outside and settle this Aaron Burr-style.”
Farenthold was most likely referencing Sen. Susan Collins, who voted against the 2015 Obamacare repeal bill and currently opposes both a clean repeal of Obamacare and the Senate healthcare bill, known as the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA).
Sens. Collins, Capito, and Murkowski’s opposition to either Obamacare repeal bills could tank the Republicans’ chance of repealing Obamacare. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can only afford to lose two senators and have Vice President Mike Pence break the tie. Senate leadership considers Sens. Collins and Murkowski lost causes, while they believe that Sen. Capito could still support a vote to proceed on the BCRA.
Conservative activist groups branded these conservative senators “traitors” for their opposition to repealing Obamacare.
The Senate will vote on Tuesday to proceed with the efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Farenthold concluded, “The fact that the Senate does not have the courage to do some of the things that every Republican in the Senate promised to do is just absolutely repugnant to me.”