The House Freedom Caucus, the conservative group blamed by President Donald Trump for holding up the American Health Care Act, answered Twitter attacks from the President on its own account Friday, saying that it had kept its promise to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Trump’s lobs came Thursday morning, and then later in the afternoon. He named three prominent members of the caucus who were vocal in their opposition to his and House leadership’s bill to repeal and replace Obamacare: Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), the caucus’ chair; Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who helped found the caucus and was its first chairman; and Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-ID).
The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 30, 2017
If @RepMarkMeadows, @Jim_Jordan and @Raul_Labrador would get on board we would have both great healthcare and massive tax cuts & reform.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 30, 2017
Where are @RepMarkMeadows, @Jim_Jordan and @Raul_Labrador?#RepealANDReplace #Obamacare
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 30, 2017
The Freedom Caucus responded Friday by saying Trump’s preferred bill was unpopular with the American people and didn’t fulfill Republicans’ campaign promise to fully repeal the ACA.
.@RealDonaldTrump We are where we’ve always been: committed to keeping our promise. https://t.co/VVzqUKYoeX
— House Freedom Caucus (@freedomcaucus) March 31, 2017
.@realDonaldTrump .@RealDonaldTrump Repeal includes eliminating the costly Obamacare regs that are driving up Americans’ premiums.
— House Freedom Caucus (@freedomcaucus) March 31, 2017
.@realDonaldTrump .@RealDonaldTrump We can do better than a plan that only 17% of Americans support. #KeepOurPromise
— House Freedom Caucus (@freedomcaucus) March 31, 2017
Twitter:Trump :: Hair:Samson
Trump’s only real strength is using Twitter as a club. If you take that away, he’s got nothing. The more people stand up to him like this, the weaker he becomes, like cutting Samson’s hair.
It is a bit like “the blind leading the blind” however,
Or the “blond leading the bland”
The beauty of the responses are their tone. Trump wins on these things because his fanbase like his bullying, they love it when he twitter beats people up. If he responds nastily (and we know he will.) Then they keep responding like this - to all who read (because it will keep being followed in non twitter media) he will keep looking unhinged and in stark comparison to the responses that are cogent and have an air of decorum.
Then there is the thing that both Trump and the FC appeal to much of the same base. Come on Don, respond! Keep it up VC lets drag this out a little bit and fragment a little more of your shared base.
More popcorn please.