President Donald Trump ignored suggestions that he add to the GOP’s slim majority in the Senate by appointing a Senate democrat to his cabinet, in a decision that may have cost the party the one additional vote needed to pass Obamacare repeal.
GOP senators urged Trump to appoint a Democratic senator from a red state to his cabinet with the expectation that the appointee would be replaced by a Republican senator, party sources told to Axios. The senators’ reportedly lobbied Trump to appoint Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota as Secretary of Agriculture. They also suggested Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia for Secretary of Energy.
A GOP strategist closely familiar with the transition conversations told Axios the combination of one additional GOP vote and a disciplined Chief of Staff may have been sufficient to prompt GOP leadership to hold a vote on the Senate’s original Obamacare repeal bill prior to the July 4 recess.
“That vote would have repealed Obamacare last month [the stronger version that was considered before the Fourth of July break]. A strong Chief [of staff] would have understood and executed on that wisdom instead of waiting and watching the President’s agenda lose by narrow margin,” the strategist told Axios. “In short, if [Gen. John] Kelly — or someone of equal strength — was the Chief of Staff in January, Obamacare would be repealed today. And who knows what else may already be accomplished.”
The repeal effort eventually failed after it was delayed through the July 4 recess in response to the emergence of moderate and conservative GOP defectors in the days leading up to the initial scheduled vote.
General Kelly, who was sworn in as Chief of Staff Monday, has reportedly already imposed a previously unseen level of discipline on the West Wing by restricting access to the oval office.
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