Rep. Sullivan apologizes for comment about ‘killing’ senators

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Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK) apologized on Thursday after Talking Points Memo obtained an audio recording of him saying he would need to kill members of the Senate in order for the Republican budget to pass there.

“I supported the Paul Ryan budget and sent it over to the Senate,” he said at a town hall meeting. “Now I live with some senators, I yell at them all the time, I grabbed one of them the other day and shook him and I’d love to get them to vote for it.”

“You know but other than me going over there with a gun and holding it to their head and maybe killing a couple of them, I don’t think they’re going to listen unless they get beat.”

A spokesperson for Sullivan apologized for his “poor choice of words” and said the congressman did not condone any form of violence against legislators.

The use of combat-related rhetoric and symbols in politics has become somewhat taboo following the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), who survived a gunshot wound to the head last year.

Listen to the audio, courtesy of TPM, below: