After a stunning defeat in his attempted repeal of Obamacare, President Donald Trump retired to his favorite pastime on Saturday by slamming his party on Twitter.
A flurry of angry messages saw Trump criticize Republican senators for mandating 60 votes to pass legislation, as opposed to a simple majority of 51.
“The very outdated filibuster rule must go,” Trump said, before directly calling on majority leader Mitch McConnell to lower the vote count requirements. Filibuster rules, by the way, were not a factor in the failure of the Trump administration’s repeal efforts.
McConnell said in April — and doubled down to political blog Roll Call on Saturday — he would not bend to Trump’s will.
It’s been a scorched-earth week at the White House with the surprise failure of the “skinny repeal,” which would have deprived a reported 16 million Americans of health care coverage. Republicans John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski all defected in a dramatic middle-of-the-night vote that blocked Trump from dismantling a legacy bill for his predecessor Barack Obama.
Shortly after the vote, Trump fired his Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and replaced him with Secretary of Homeland Security Gen. John Kelly.
Read the tweets:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/891334415347060736
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/891332290474848257
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/891263843908947969
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/891261878005092353
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/891260230876659713
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/891259245106278400
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/891257113565163520