Republican Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina blasted White House threats Sunday to unseat Republicans who fail to support Obamacare repeal and replace.
“I think that those kinds of threats are counterproductive,” Sanford said on CNN’s State of the Union. Sanford said President Donald Trump sent the Director of the Office of Management Mick Mulvaney to visit him during last month’s dramatic healthcare debate.
“He [Mulvaney] said the president hopes you vote against this because he wants to run somebody against you if you do,” Sanford told CNN host Dana Bash.
“He’s made those kinds of threats to any number of different members within the conference, and you know, it all I guess fits in love, war and politics, but I don’t think it’s particularly productive to his own legislative agenda and we’ll see what comes,” Sanford continued.
Sanford, who survived a 2009 sex scandal, has taken on Trump in the past, saying in February that he “fanned the flames of intolerance.” Sanford did not appear to be dubious about taking on Trump’s wrath anew, “I don’t work for him. I work for about 750,000 people here in the first congressional district.”
He also responded to news that the president wants to get a health care plan passed in the coming days, saying that it would be extremely difficult. “I think it’s an awfully tough dream, given the fact that, I mean, you got to whip the vote before you actually take the vote,” Sanford said.
He also confirmed to Bash that GOP leadership is looking to bring forward a compromise by allowing states to opt out of rules that protect people with pre-existing conditions. “It represents a compromise that I think would allow this bill to leave the House and make its way to the Senate,” Sanford asserted.
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