A spat between Republicans in the House and Senate heated up on Tuesday, when a hot mic caught Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) bashing Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) over his suggestion that he wanted to challenge Collins and other female Republican senators to a duel for not supporting GOP health care legislation.
Speaking to Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) after a Senate subcommittee hearing, Collins asked if he’d heard Farenthold’s comments, made last week in a local radio interview.
Reed said he had, before assuring Collins that she “could beat the shit out of” Farenthold.
Collins responded by calling Farenthold “so unattractive, it’s unbelievable.”
“Did you see the picture of him in his pajamas next to this bunny, Playboy bunny?” Collins continued.
She was apparently referring to a photo of Farenthold that circulated in 2010, during his first run for Congress. He still won.
Last week, Farenthold criticized his GOP colleagues in the Senate for lacking the “courage” to repeal Obamacare and pass a replacement bill. He specifically called out “female senators from the Northeast,” whom he suggested he would have challenged to a duel ― if they were men.
“If it was a guy from south Texas, I might ask him to step outside and settle this Aaron Burr-style,” the congressman said.
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