As his administration struggled to persuade Republican senators to fall in line behind a bill to repeal Obamacare, President Donald Trump on Tuesday night returned to the comfort of a campaign speech, promising a crowd in Youngstown, Ohio, that he would push forward with his agenda.
Trump responded to his critics, as he so often does, mentioning that pundits often lament that he is not “presidential.”
“It’s so easy to act presidential, but that’s not going to get it done,” Trump said. “It is much easier, by the way, to act presidential than what we are doing here tonight, believe me.”
He then ranked himself right behind Abraham Lincoln.
“With the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that’s ever held this office,” he said.
His comments at the rally come amid a public campaign by the President to tear down Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Still fuming over Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe, Trump has relentlessly, publicly attacked Sessions this week, calling him “beleaguered” and suggesting he could let the attorney general go.
Trump treated the rally like a campaign stump speech, hitting on his usual topics of immigration, job creation, and infrastructure. He also threw in a few lines pressuring Republican senators to vote for a bill to repeal Obamacare.
As the President made promises to bring back jobs in the United States, Republican senators were back in Washington struggling to move forward on a plan to repeal Obamacare. After squeaking through a motion to proceed to debate on repeal, nine Republicans voted down the Senate GOP’s replacement plan, defeating the comprehensive bill. Now senators are left to vote on on a straight repeal bill and a “skinny repeal” bill that would punt negotiations back to the House.
Watch clips from Trump’s Tuesday rally via CNN:
