Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday he wasn't worried about primary challenge from the right, as he tried to explain that repealing the Affordable Care Act is unlikely as long as Democrats have some control of Washington.
"I've endured millions of dollars of attack ads that have been calling me a right-wing fanatic over the years," the Kentucky senator told CBS' "Face the Nation." "I think my opponents in the primary are going to have a hard time convincing Kentucky primary voters that I'm some kind of liberal."
McConnell was a key player in last week's deal to reopen the government, a deal that made no significant changes in the 2010 health care law.
Be patient, he advised Sunday.
"We had some tactical differences about how to get at the repeal of Obamacare, but the fact that we have some tactical differences doesn't mean we don't all share the same goal," he said.
"Obamacare is the worst piece of legislation that's been passed in the last half century, the single biggest step in the direction of Europeanizing our country." McConnell charged. "We need to get rid of it. And if the American people will give us a majority in the Senate and a new president, that's exactly what we're going to do."