Bernie Sanders defends escalating rhetoric over Senate healthcare bill because it’s accurate

Sanders and other Democrats have been slammed for their attempts to brand Republicans as being a part of the “Party of Death,” calling the tax cuts in the Senate healthcare bill as “blood money” and repeatedly saying people will die due to the bill.

The statements came a week after House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and three others were shot during a baseball practice in northern Virginia, and Republicans criticized that kind of rhetoric as inappropriate.

But, Sanders refused to back off his statements because he believes they’re factually accurate.

“What Harvard University … and the scientists there determined is when you throw 23 million people off health insurance — people with cancer, people with heart disease, people with diabetes — thousands of people will die,” Sanders said. “I wish I didn’t have to say it, this is not me. This is study after study saying if you have cancer and your insurance is taken away from you, there is a likelihood you will die.”

Sanders was criticized by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, for using that kind of rhetoric in the wake of the shooting.

“The brief time when we were *not* accusing those we disagree with of murder was nice while it lasted,” Hatch tweeted.