President Donald Trump attempted to give a boost to Republicans’ stalled Obamacare repeal effort Wednesday.
But he seemed to acknowledge that his party had lost the messaging battle on health care to Democrats, who the President said “scream death,” presumably referring to Democrats’ framing of Republicans’ proposed overhaul of the health care system.
I will be having lunch at the White House today with Republican Senators concerning healthcare. They MUST keep their promise to America!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2017
The Republicans never discuss how good their healthcare bill is, & it will get even better at lunchtime.The Dems scream death as OCare dies!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2017
Trump has invited all Republican senators to the White House for lunch to try to rally support for the repeal effort.
Despite his complaints about the legislative process, the President has largely removed himself from the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act and make deep, lasting cuts to Medicaid.
Speaking to reporters after it was clear the latest repeal effort would fail to gain sufficient votes to be considered on the Senate floor, Trump pinned blame on Democrats and implied he would sabotage Obamacare.
“It will be a lot easier and I think we’re probably in that position where we’ll just let Obamacare fail,” he said. “We’re not going to own it. I’m not going to own it. I can tell you Republicans are not going to own it.”
And he stumbled through the strange political balancing act of criticizing the Republican senators who voted against the effort, saying that they would “have to explain why they did, and I’m sure they have very fine reasons, but we have to get more Republicans elected because we have to get it done.”
