The White House escalated its very public battle against the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus this weekend, when a top administration official used social media to call for a primary challenge for Rep. Justin Amash of MI. He even showed up in a tuxedo to give Art of the Deal pointers to Freedom Caucus members during the height of negotiations.
Rand Paul, a top conservative critic of House Republicans' failed plan to replace ObamaCare, concluded his golf outing Sunday with President Trump by saying party members are "getting closer" on a compromise repeal plan and that he remains "very optimistic".
But conservative groups are now urging GOP unity on the issue.
Many Republicans, led by President Donald Trump, have insisted that the Affordable Care Act, which has expanded coverage to more than 20 million Americans, is failing and needs to immediately be repealed.
"I defined "repeal and replace" as "repair" several months ago", said Lance (R-7th Dist.).
But the not-so-veiled threats by the president are likely to have little impact in these conservative districts, where most members easily outperformed Trump and, instead, would have faced more viable primary threats from the right if they had backed the deeply unpopular Obamacare bill.
"If you say, 'This is Obamacare, it's failing, ' people can say, 'Well, we elected you to fix it, '" said Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman from Virginia who headed the House GOP's campaign committee. That is certainly the view of Freedom Caucus members such as Dave Brat, who said that his predecessor, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, had "veer (ed) from the Republican creed".
Democrats Break Ranks to Vote for Confirmation of Gorsuch
Vice President Pence presided over the vote in his role of president of the Senate. Schumer also attempted to adjourn until the evening, but was unsuccessful.
Brooks also said he was uncomfortable discussing what happened at the meeting.
Trump, who was a registered Democrat for much of his life, isn't going to win favor with many conservative voters by threatening conservative representatives.
Trump said the bill was pulled because "I didn't want to take a vote". Most politicians fear and fight change.
But Daniel Jacobson, a White House lawyer under President Obama, tweeted that White House staff "can't use an official or de facto govt Twitter acct (which this is) to call for defeat of a candidate".
Representative Jim Jordan of OH, co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus, said Sunday that tweets, statements and blame from the White House "don't change facts" and that Ryan's legislation fell short of promises Republicans had made to voters about how Obamacare would be ended.
Amash later told reporters that Trump's tactic would be "constructive in fifth grade".
"Even the CBO said premiums were going to rise for the next three-and-a-half years, and certainly it doesn't unite Republicans, as evidenced by the fact that you got conservatives and moderates who are opposed to the legislation, and it doesn't unite the country", he said. "I had a very good conversation with Charlie Dent today, talking what are some, you know, are there common areas?"
Comments