White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Monday that President Donald Trump reached out to several senators over the weekend to seek their support for Senate Republicans’ bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.
“He made several calls to multiple senators to hear their concerns and get their ideas, and understand where they’re at and what needs to get done,” Spicer said at a press briefing, asked how Trump was involved over the weekend with the health care effort.
He later named some senators with whom Trump spoke: “I know he’s talked to Sen. Cruz, he’s talked to Sen. Paul, I know he’s talked to Sen. Capito, Sen. Johnson,” Spicer said. “I don’t have — but I know those individuals and I think several others.”
“He’s very pleased with the developments that have come,” Spicer said, referring to Senate Republicans’ bill. “He’s been impressed with the work. He obviously, as you mentioned, he wants a bill that has heart. He wants a bill that does what it’s supposed to do. When you look at what happened with Obamacare, he doesn’t — he wants to make sure that we think through it. As I mentioned to Blake, he had several calls over the weekend hearing ideas and opinions about how to strengthen it, and will continue to support ways to make the bill stronger.
“But are these criteria, as you said in the past, still to cover everyone with lower premiums and lower deductibles?” one reporter asked.
“Sure,” Spicer replied.
And despite the White House’s criticism of Democrats for their refusal to work with them to repeal Obamacare, Spicer said he didn’t know if Trump had called any Democrats.
“I don’t know the answer to that,” Spicer said, when asked if Trump had reached out to Democrats.