Politics

Mitch McConnell’s conservative challenger: ‘Be a man!’

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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The new Republican challenger to Mitch McConnell got fired up on Saturday at a Kentucky rally, telling the Senate minority leader to “be a man” and support a new strategy favored by conservatives to defund Obamacare.

“Be a man,” Kentucky businessman Matt Bevin told a rowdy crowd, his voice rising at the Fancy Farm picnic in Fancy Farm, Ky. “Stand up and put your money where your mouth is! The people of Kentucky deserve better!”

Bevin argued in favor of a strategy being pushed by a number of conservatives in Congress who say they will not support any spending resolution that continues to fund President Obama’s health care law, even if it means forcing a government shutdown.

“We hear alot of empty rhetoric from Mitch McConnell about ending Obamacare,” Bevin said.

McConnell, who boasted at the same political event of battling the Obama administration over Obamacare, has suggested he favors other approaches to dismantling the law.

Some Republicans in the Senate have come out against the strategy, saying it gives false hope to conservatives because it simply won’t work. Without having control of the Senate or the presidency, such legislation would be impossible to pass.

But Bevin said that strategy is better than the one McConnell has been employing.

“Stop talking about it,” Bevin said of McConnell. “Start voting in the U.S. Senate to kill it by defunding it.”

During an earlier speech, McConnell argued his leadership position helped Kentucky and that electing someone else would be negative for the state.

“Look you can’t get any of those things done from the backbench,” McConnell said. “That’s why it’s important, very very important, to keep Kentucky’s voice strong.”

McConnell flatly stated: “I take Kentucky’s fight to the liberals every single day.”

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