ICYMI: In Leaked Audio, Heller Pledges to Repeal Obamacare If Re-Elected

Maddow: [Heller] has broadcast that sentiment about what it takes to beat him

Dean Heller’s done it again. The most vulnerable incumbent in the country was caught on tape promising to repeal health care if re-elected – a position that has driven his unpopularity with voters across the state.

The stunning comment was reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which obtained audio from an event Heller had barred press from attending. Now we know why he tried to keep them out. As Rachel Maddow put it last night, “he has broadcast that sentiment about what it takes to beat him.” Watch:

Las Vegas Review-Journal: Heller promised Obamacare repeal in Las Vegas speech to GOP club
By Colton Lockhead

Key Points:

• “We now have less than 60,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. Let me be more clear. If we can get that number below 50,000, I can’t lose,” Heller said Tuesday in Las Vegas, according to audio obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I can’t lose. Because the ratio of voter turnout in a non-presidential year — we’re in a non-presidential year — the tendency of Republicans to vote is higher than the other party.”
• The audio comes from the Tuesday luncheon at the Nevada Republican Men’s club, an event that has historically been open to the press but which barred the media for Heller’s appearance due to “an issue of space,” the club’s president Pauline Ng Lee told a Review-Journal reporter.
• “If we have 100,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in the state of Nevada or more, I can’t win,” Heller said. “Let me say that again, if we have 100,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in the state of Nevada, I can’t win. (Republican Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Adam) Laxalt can’t win.”
• Heller promised to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act — a position that he has waffled on several times in the last 10 months…
• “If we have 51 Republicans that will vote to repeal and replace, it will happen,” Heller said when asked about the future of Obamacare, the common name for the Affordable Care Act.
• But Heller’s own stance on repealing the ACA is anything but straightforward. He came under fire last summer when congressional Republicans tried to make good on their longtime promise to repeal President Barack Obama’s landmark health care law.
• The vulnerable senator found himself stuck between his state’s popular Republican governor in Brian Sandoval — who was the first GOP governor to embrace expanded Medicaid — and President Donald Trump, who jabbed that Heller would fall in line because “he wants to remain a senator, doesn’t he?”
• When it came time to cast votes last year, Heller went against the full repeal bill, but voted in favor of a “skinny repeal,” a trimmed down repeal plan that failed after McCain, Collins and Murkowski voted against it.
• Heller was not among the original supporters of Trump, and was especially critical of then-candidate Trump during the 2016 campaign season.
• But in recent months, the vulnerable senator has cozied up to the president and his priorities — a move that seems to have been rewarded when Trump convinced Danny Tarkanian to drop his bid in challenging Heller in the Republican primary and instead run for an open U.S. House seat, leaving Heller free to focus on Democratic U.S. Rep. Jacky Rosen, his likely general election opponent.

Read the full report.