Politics

Trump To Press GOP Senators On Health Care During Lunch

REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Amber Athey Podcast Columnist
Font Size:

President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that he intends on eating lunch with Republican Senators to discuss health care reform.

The lunch is the latest attempt by Trump to pressure Republicans into passing a repeal and replace of Obamacare.

“They MUST keep their promise to America!” Trump wrote in one of the tweets announcing the lunch.

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

Trump said during an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network last week that he was ready to sign whatever health care bill the GOP put on his desk–reminding the GOP it would be “very bad” politically if they were unable to get it done. However, the Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act failed to gather enough GOP support to pass.

After the BCRA failed, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced plans to vote on a straight Obamacare repeal with a two-year phase in, but three GOP Senators said Tuesday that they wouldn’t vote for that either.

“The Republicans never discuss how good their healthcare bill is,” Trump tweeted as health care reform hangs in limbo.

“It will get even better at lunchtime,” implying he intends to convince the Senate to make changes to the bill so that they can win votes from holdouts.

Follow Amber on Twitter