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Was Trump joking on health care — AP SPIN METER

“It’s more or less a warning shot that we are willing to talk to anyone”.

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But Trump’s chief spokesman stressed to reporters that Trump is not going to pursue a deal with Republican – and perhaps some Democratic – lawmakers for the sake of it. “If people don’t like the president or the job he is doing, they can’t vote against him in 2018 – they would have to vote against members of his party”.

President Trump on Tuesday expressed confidence about making a future deal on healthcare after Republicans failed to shore up support last week for their plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

But Politico says Nancy Pelosi is now “empowered”, and the New York Times says “Democrats will not be lending a hand anytime soon”.

Ryan drudged over to the White House Friday afternoon and informed the President he was pulling the legislation because he lacked the votes to pass the bill. “I think some of the Democrats … early on in the process said that they wanted nothing to do with this process, there was no way that they would engage in any discussion to repeal”, Spicer said.

In other words, Trump can not persuade Democrats that working with him will make them more popular back at home. When asked during a press conference if Trump was serious about working across party lines, Spicer responded “Absolutely”.

In the hours and days after President Donald Trump and Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., made a decision to pull a GOP-crafted measure aimed at repealing and replacing the Obama administration’s 2010 health law, the chief executive and his top aides signaled the effort was dead.

The sentiment was echoed by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in an interview Monday with NBC News.

“We can’t be chasing the ideal all he time”, he said.

A Republican plan backed by Trump to overhaul the USA health-care system was pulled on Friday after it failed to garner enough support to pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

Katie Walsh, a longtime top lieutenant to chief of staff Reince Priebus, is leaving the administration to join the nonprofit group America First Policies.

Congressional town hall meetings over the past two months have been frequently tense affairs, with anger directed not only at Republican representatives supporting Trump, but against Democratic representatives who have done nothing to oppose him.

“Right now it’s just a notion, because he realizes he can’t get a majority of Republicans”, Sen.

“It would be a huge mistake for the message on this failure on health care to be to assume that conservatives won’t be good allies”, said Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union. “He’d have to come our way on policy, and there’s no sign he wants to do that yet”. “We have ideas, they have ideas, to try to improve Obamacare”, he told ABC News on Sunday. She decided over the weekend that she could better help Trump on the outside and said she was “excited” to continue pressing his agenda. “Hopefully it’ll start being bipartisan because everybody really wants the same thing”.

That would enrage not just Democrats, but independents and some Republicans.

The counterweight to that, of course, is that many House Republicans are in safe districts drawn by Republican-controlled state legislatures, and they will be tough to unseat. The latest Gallup poll showed Trump at his lowest public standing since taking office, with only 36 percent approval, and 57 percent disapproving.

But, says the piece by Michael Warren, “What incentive do Nancy Pelosi and Democratic leadership, who have control over committee assignments and campaign contributions, have in releasing its members to support the Trump administration on nearly anything hard?” “Trump has proven he can’t handle the Republican Congress”.

Keeping moderates and the most conservative elements of the party together is a tricky balancing act.

“I think the losers are Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, because now they own Obamacare”, Trump said on Friday afternoon. As Trump assembled his cabinet of billionaires, generals and ultra-right ideologues-with the fascist Steven K. Bannon as top White House adviser-the Democrats laid low, and the US Senate rubber-stamped almost every cabinet nominee. “They weren’t even trying to get Democrats involved”.

But before then, more pressing problems loom. Yesterday, however, Gaetz, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, voted with his party to help keep the tax returns under wrap. Both issues underscore the incentives for Trump and his team to successfully build bridges with Democrats.

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Gorsuch, Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court, remains on track for confirmation with solid support among Republicans.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington Wednesday