And that’s despite the fact the McConnell campaign has stood by his original comments. Campaign spokeswoman Allison Moore said earlier this week that Kentuckians should be able to decide whether to keep the exchange if the law were repealed, and McConnell advisor Josh Holmes doubled-down on Wednesday, telling The Hill that it was in fact the law’s supporters that didn’t understand the rationale.

“What most of this boils down to is proof positive that many of the most vocal proponents of Obamacare, like the lawmakers who passed it, have absolutely no idea how it works,” Holmes said in an email. “We’ve got people getting kicked out of plans they enjoyed and thrown into Medicaid or some more expensive plan, and the White House is calling their enrollment statistic a success. In what universe is that a success?”

But Tim Jost, a leading authority on the Affordable Care Act, called McConnell’s comments, and the subsequent elaboration from his campaign, “ridiculous.”

“If you repeal the Affordable Care Act and eliminate the tax credits, eliminate the Medicaid expansion and eliminate the market reforms, there is nothing left,” said Jost, a professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law.