President Donald Trump said in an interview published Sunday that he “didn’t want to take a vote” on the Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, despite demanding one less than 24 hours before the legislation was pulled.
“You know that we didn’t take a vote,” Trump said in an interview with the Financial Times. “I didn’t want to take a vote. It was my idea. I said why should I take a vote.”
Less than 24 hours before Republicans choked and pulled the bill, unable to muster the votes for its passage amid defections from both moderate and conservative members, Trump pushed for the legislation to go to the floor anyway.
“Yeah, I don’t lose. I don’t like to lose,” Trump told the Financial Times. “But that wasn’t a definitive day. They are negotiating as we speak. I don’t know if you know. They are negotiating right now. There was no reason to take a vote.”
He suggested that if his administration is unable to come to an agreement with the conservative House Freedom Caucus, he “will make a deal with the Democrats” to change health care policy.
Trump also said that he does not regret any of his tweets, which often take over news cycles and result in self-inflicted wounds to his administration.
“I don’t regret anything, because there is nothing you can do about it,” he said. “You know if you issue hundreds of tweets, and every once in a while you have a clinker, that’s not so bad.”
