Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said on Sunday that it is “virtually impossible” for Democrats to work with President Donald Trump to improve Obamacare unless Trump is willing to change his position on repeal.
“We have ideas, they have ideas, to try to improve Obamacare. We never said it was perfect, we always said we’d work with them to improve it. We just said repeal was off the table,” Schumer said on ABC’s “This Week.”
He said that Trump never reached out to Democrats about the Republican bill which was pulled on Friday half an hour before its scheduled House floor vote. Trump blamed Democrats, among others, for the bill’s last-minute implosion.
“The President never called us once about this,” Schumer said.
He said that Trump is undermining himself with his threats to let Obamacare “implode completely.”
“For the President to say that he’ll destroy it or undermine it, that’s not presidential. That’s petulance,” Schumer said. “And it’s not going to work.”
He said Trump’s negotiations on the failed Republican bill demonstrated a “basic lack of competence.”
“You cannot run the presidency like you run a real estate deal,” Schumer said. “You can’t tweet your way through it, you can’t threaten and intimidate and say ‘I’ll walk away.’ It’s more complicated.”
“It doesn’t sound like you’re ready to be a real partner there,” George Stephanopoulos said.
“No, it’s not me, it’s him,” Schumer said. “It’s virtually impossible for us to work with him. If he changes, he could have a different presidency.”
.@SenSchumer to @GStephanopoulos: We’ll work with Republicans to “improve” Obamacare, but “repeal is off the table.” https://t.co/YlN1GAUJPj pic.twitter.com/WxEJbEheKJ
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) March 26, 2017
