WASHINGTON — President Trump unleashed sharp tweets this weekend to cast blame on everyone but himself for the failure of his health care plan to pass the House.
After laying the blame squarely on the Democrats on Friday, Trump is now pointing the finger at conservative groups that worked against him.
“Democrats are smiling in D.C. that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club For Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood & Ocare!,” Trump tweeted Sunday morning.
In a stunning about-face, Trump appeared to cast away House Speaker Paul Ryan. Trump publicly stood by the leader Friday, but issued a shot across the bow Saturday by directing his 27 million Twitter followers to watch Fox News’ “Justice with Judge Jeanine” at 9 p.m. Saturday.
In her opening statement on the show, Jeanine Pirro eviscerated Ryan.
“Paul Ryan needs to step down as speaker of the House. The reason? He failed to deliver the votes on his health care bill,” she said.
But White House chief of staff Reince Priebus said Pirro’s message was just “coincidental” and Trump was just “helping out a friend” get TV ratings.
“He thought Paul Ryan worked very hard” and stands by his speakership, Priebus told “Fox News Sunday.”
In a huge defeat, Trump and Ryan had to pull their health care bill Friday afternoon because it didn’t have enough conservative votes to repeal and replace ObamaCare. There was little effort by Republicans to work in a bipartisan effort on the legislation and Democrats uniformly opposed the GOP-authored bill.
Licking its wounds, the White House will now reach out to more “moderate Democrats” because Trump learned that certain Republicans can’t be trusted, Priebus said.
“It’s a real shame,” Priebus said. “I think the president is disappointed in the number of people that he thought were loyal to him that weren’t.”
Whether Trump can get Democrats on board is a big question, since he’s spent the beginning of his presidency criticizing the minority party and even belittling Sen. Charles Schumer as a “clown.”
“This president is not going to be a partisan president,” Priebus declared Sunday.
“I think it’s more or less a warning shot that we’re willing to talk to anyone. We always have been. I think more so now than ever, it’s time for both parties to come together and get to real reforms in this country … this president is ready to lead.”