Between Louis Gohmert (R-TX), Steve King (R-IA), and Blake Farenthold (R-TX), the competition is tough to decide who is the Stupidest Member of Congress.

Here’s Mr. Farenthold’s latest entry for consideration via Steven Benen:

Late last week, when an audio recording surfaced of Trump bragging about sexual assault, dozens of GOP officials abandoned the Republican presidential candidate, but even in this case, the vast majority of the party’s members of Congress and governors stuck with Trump.

So, for these loyal partisans, is there any limit? Is there literally nothing the GOP nominee could say or do to cause them to walk away? On MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes,” the host posed a striking hypothetical to Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas). Here’s the relevant part of the exchange:

FARENTHOLD: I’m not here to defend Donald Trump. I don’t like what he said, but …

HAYES: If a tape came out with Donald Trump saying that – if a tape came out with Donald Trump saying that, saying “I really like to rape women,” you would continue to endorse him.

FARENTHOLD: Again, it would, I — that would be bad, and I would have to consider – I’d consider it. But again, we’re talking about what Donald Trump said 10 years ago as opposed to what Hillary Clinton has done in the past two or three years.

In other words, if the Texas congressman heard Donald Trump boasting about rape, Farenthold would “consider” withdrawing his support, but according to what he said on the air last night, it wouldn’t be an automatic deal-breaker.

I think we have a winner.