House Speaker Paul Ryan said Donald Trump called him after the president plugged Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro show — in which she demanded Ryan’s resignation.
“[President Trump] actually was very apologetic about it, in that he said, ‘I had no idea that that’s what she was gonna talk about. I thought she was gonna talk about something else,’” Ryan told “CBS This Morning” co-host Norah O’Donnell. “So really, that was completely coincidental.”
On Saturday, Trump posted a tweet saying, “Watch @JudgeJeanine on @FoxNews tonight at 9:00 PM.”
Later that night, former prosecutor Pirro kicked off her show “Justice with Judge Jeanine” by coming down hard on Ryan for his failure to deliver the votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with his health care bill.
“Paul Ryan needs to step down,” she said in her opening remarks. “The reason? He failed to deliver the votes on his health care bill … The one that he had seven years to work on … The one that had to be pulled to prevent the embarrassment of not having enough votes to pass.”
Pirro went on to place blame solely on Ryan’s shoulders: “I want to be clear. This is not on President Trump. No one expected a business man to completely understand the nuances, the complicated ins and outs of Washington and its legislative process.”
Her chastising continued, calling Ryan’s proposed replacement bill a “total and complete failure,” asking how he could have so badly misjudged the outcome, when Trump’ put their faith in him.
“I can only imagine that he and his aides took on health care because they believed you [Ryan] had his back, and you didn’t,” she blasted.