UPDATE: Sen. Collins has accepted Rep. Farenthold's apology for the duel, and she has apologized for calling him fat.
.@SenatorCollins on Texas congressman: “I accept his apology, and I offer him mine." https://t.co/xBC1U6VWIe #mepolitics pic.twitter.com/Hi2CQaKaBN
— Bangor Daily News (@bangordailynews) July 25, 2017
---Original Post---
On Monday, Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-TX) made an utterly bizarre statement about wishing he could challenge "female senators from the Northeast" to a duel in order to get the ball rolling on Obamacare repeal. While Farenthold referred to senators, as in plural, his descriptors (female, in the Senate, from the Northeast, and opposed to current efforts to repeal Obamacare) only really pointed to one woman: Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).
On Tuesday, Collins and Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) were caught on a hot mic discussing Farenthold's comments, among other things. (Evidently, Collins had forgotten to switch off her microphone following the end of the subcommittee hearing.) Reed said that Collins could "beat the sh-t out of him" if the duel actually happened. Collins then made a comment about Farenthold's size, saying he was "huge," and "so unattractive." She also asked if Reed had seen the now-infamous picture of Farenthold clad in a pair of rubber ducky pajamas posing by a "Playboy bunny."
The audio was tweeted out by JM Rieger of HuffPost. Take a listen below:
MALE SENATOR on FARENTHOLD: "You could beat the shit out of him."
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) July 25, 2017
SUSAN COLLINS: "He's huge ... he's so unattractive, it's unbelievable." pic.twitter.com/hyw6fKU15E
Per the Washington Post, earlier in the recording (admittedly, it's difficult to hear), Reed said that he thought President Trump was "crazy," and Collins said that she does not think that Trump understands how the budgeting process works.
Alrighty. While Farenthold's comment/daydream about a duel was on the strange and inappropriate side, it's also not exactly okay for Collins to mock a fellow congressman's weight. Maybe it's time for everyone to start acting like adults instead of high schoolers.
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