JohnnyApplesack
Gold Member
- Feb 8, 2011
- 2,660
- 355
- 130
Republican infighting consumed the Capitol Thursday, drowning out last-ditch attempts by GOP leaders to salvage their failed attempt to replace Obamacare and threatening to sharpen the divisions that sank it in the first place.
President Donald Trump threatened to drive hard-line conservatives from office after they led the opposition to his health care push. Then he got personal, singling out three top antagonists for being particularly resistant to his agenda.
If @RepMarkMeadows, @Jim_Jordan and @Raul_Labrador would get on board we would have both great healthcare and massive tax cuts & reform," he tweeted to his 27 million followers, naming the three leaders of the arch-conservative House Freedom Caucus. He taunted them a second time immediately after.
In return for his earlier, more general threat to challenge Freedom Caucus members in 2018, one of them, Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), accused the president of becoming a creature of Washington.
That wasn't all: Speaker Paul Ryan warned that the GOP health care stalemate could drive Trump to work with Democrats. A Republican senator accused Ryan of badmouthing bipartisanship.
Trump vs. Freedom Caucus ‘cannibalization’ after health care failure
The crossfire left a sour taste for lawmakers as they left town for the weekend without resolving any of the differences that ruptured health care deliberations the week before.
“You know, the great tendency in politics today is to, in frustration, go after each other rather than the fundamental dynamics that are causing the problem,” said Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), who decried the GOP bent toward “cannibalization” that led Trump to attack conservatives.
President Donald Trump threatened to drive hard-line conservatives from office after they led the opposition to his health care push. Then he got personal, singling out three top antagonists for being particularly resistant to his agenda.
If @RepMarkMeadows, @Jim_Jordan and @Raul_Labrador would get on board we would have both great healthcare and massive tax cuts & reform," he tweeted to his 27 million followers, naming the three leaders of the arch-conservative House Freedom Caucus. He taunted them a second time immediately after.
In return for his earlier, more general threat to challenge Freedom Caucus members in 2018, one of them, Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.), accused the president of becoming a creature of Washington.
That wasn't all: Speaker Paul Ryan warned that the GOP health care stalemate could drive Trump to work with Democrats. A Republican senator accused Ryan of badmouthing bipartisanship.
Trump vs. Freedom Caucus ‘cannibalization’ after health care failure
The crossfire left a sour taste for lawmakers as they left town for the weekend without resolving any of the differences that ruptured health care deliberations the week before.
“You know, the great tendency in politics today is to, in frustration, go after each other rather than the fundamental dynamics that are causing the problem,” said Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), who decried the GOP bent toward “cannibalization” that led Trump to attack conservatives.
