Republican disarray deepens as Trump attacks rebel conservatives

[webfact]

Republican disarray deepens as Trump attacks rebel conservatives

By Susan Cornwell and Amanda Becker

REUTERS

 

U.S. President Donald Trump talks to journalists at the Oval Office of the White House after the AHCA health care bill was pulled before a vote in Washington, U.S. March 24, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/Files

Dimensions728 x 485

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump lashed out on Thursday at Republican conservatives who helped torpedo healthcare legislation he backed, escalating a feud within his party that jeopardizes the new administration's legislative agenda.

 

Trump threatened to try to defeat members of the Freedom Caucus - a bloc of conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives - in next year's congressional elections if they continued to defy him.

 

"The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don't get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!" Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday morning.

 

House conservatives fought back.

 

"Most people don't take well to being bullied," said Representative Justin Amash, who compared Trump's approach to what a child does when he wants to "get his way."

 

Representative Raul Labrador, one of the founders of the Freedom Caucus, urged Trump in a tweet to "Remember who your real friends are. We're trying to help you succeed."

 

Trump's deteriorating relationship with Republican House conservatives could make it harder for him to pass his legislative agenda, which includes rewriting the U.S. tax code, revisiting a healthcare overhaul and funding construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.

 

Trump, a New York businessman who touted his skills as a dealmaker in his bid for the White House, has repeatedly criticized Freedom Caucus members, blaming them for the defeat of legislation to repeal and replace former President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law.

 

Freedom Caucus members said the bill did not go far enough to dismantle the 2010 Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare.

 

Asked during a briefing whether Trump's tweet about the Freedom Caucus was a "divide-and-conquer" strategy, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said: "No, it's a math strategy, which is to get to 216," the number of votes currently needed to pass House legislation.

 

The discord following the healthcare debacle was not limited to tensions between Trump and the Freedom Caucus. In recent days, the president has been out of sync with the two highest ranking Republicans in Congress, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

 

Trump and his aides have suggested reviving the push for a healthcare bill. While Ryan expressed openness to the idea, McConnell said he thought doing so would be futile.

 

But Ryan publicly disagreed with Trump when the president offered to work with Democrats on new healthcare legislation.

"I don't want that to happen," the speaker told CBS in an interview aired on Thursday.

 

'NOT AN IDEAL POSITION'

 

More than healthcare legislation was at stake.

 

Republican lawmakers still await key details on what Trump's priorities are in the monumental tax reform effort they want to launch.

 

Passing a budget for next year could also prove challenging. Trump and the Freedom Caucus want to dramatically shrink domestic programs. Moderate Republicans are aghast at proposals to cut popular programs that fund environmental cleanup and meals for senior citizens.

 

Most pressing is an April 28 deadline for approving new funding to keep the government running.

 

"The GOP (Republican) House is riven by factions that are quite ideological. Trump is not," said University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato. "And let's throw in the fact that Trump is unpopular and weak and has no Democratic support in Congress.

 

"Add all this up. Neither Trump nor congressional Republicans are in an ideal position to govern, and that's an understatement," Sabato said.

 

There are about three dozen members of the House Freedom Caucus, comprising about 15 percent of the 237 House Republicans. But their clout is larger, as Trump and Ryan cannot afford to lose too many House Republicans if they want to try to pass bills, like the Obamacare repeal, that attract zero Democratic support.

 

Dan Meyer, a legislative affairs chief to former Republican President George W. Bush, said that with the Freedom Caucus threatening Trump's agenda, the White House either had to crack the code to working with those conservatives, or tack to the left.

 

“Moving to the left, and working with Democrats, comes at a price,” he said, noting it could expose more Republicans to attacks from the right.

 

Some Republicans were so furious they were publicly saying things usually reserved for closed-door meetings.

 

Representative Chris Collins, a Trump ally and part of the "Tuesday Group" of moderate Republicans, told reporters his group was so angry with the Freedom Caucus that it would "never" meet with them. Collins accused the Freedom Caucus of trying to shift blame for the healthcare failure to moderates.

 

SENATORS CRINGE

 

As Trump fought with House Republicans and House Republicans fought with each other, Senate Republicans expressed alarm and urged efforts at consensus.

 

Senator John McCain, who ran for president in 2008 and was defeated by Obama, said that if he were sitting in the White House now, he would try to ease intraparty tensions rather than stoking them.

 

"But that's the president," said McCain who sometimes is at odds with Trump. He added this advice to Trump: "Sit down with them and say this is an emergency situation."

 

Senator Cory Gardner, a Republican who served in the House from 2011 to 2014, said his former colleagues needed to quit arguing and come to a consensus "sooner rather than later."

 

A senior House Republican aide distanced Ryan from Trump's strategy of upbraiding conservatives.

 

"Ryan ... is never going to intentionally alienate a large swath of his caucus," said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

 

Publicly, Ryan said he understood Trump's frustration. The speaker also said he was encouraging Republican lawmakers "to keep talking to one another."

 

Ryan himself came under criticism from a fellow Republican, Senator Bob Corker, who chided the speaker for his views about courting Democrats on healthcare reform.

 

"We have come a long way in our country when the speaker of one party urges a president NOT to work with the other party to solve a problem," Corker wrote on Twitter.

 

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Susan Cornwell, David Morgan, Roberta Rampton, Tim Ahmann, Amanda Becker, David Alexander; Writing by Richard Cowan; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-03-31

[PatOngo]

I hope they keep feeding Trump more rope, he will hang himself eventually!

[brewsterbudgen]

It seems that the disintegration of the Trump Presidency is happening even quicker than some predicted! General Flynn seeking immunity is huge!

Sent from my SM-A500F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[FritsSikkink]

He is in deeper shit if this happens:

 

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/former-trump-adviser-mike-flynn-‘tells-fbi-he-is-willing-to-be-interviewed-on-presidents-possible-links-to-russia/ar-BBz4YWS?li=AAmiR2Z&ocid=spartanntp

[Langsuan Man]

17 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

It seems that the disintegration of the Trump Presidency is happening even quicker than some predicted! General Flynn seeking immunity is huge!

Nothing compared to what happens if Paul Manafort tries to make the same deal 

[craigt3365]

Such a divisive president.  He's pushing people apart, not bringing them together. 

 

From that MSM link:

Quote

It said Mr Flynn had agreed to be interviewed in return for the promise of immunity from prosecution.

Could be explosive as he's been caught red handed illegally communicating with a known foreign spy.  Something that could put him in jail.

[thaibeachlovers]

Edited March 31, 2017 by thaibeachlovers

[tonray]

Another ruse. They give him immunity and he says he knows nothing about anyone else but what he did and Trump is off the hook. No immunity....go after him and make him sweat.

[craigt3365]

5 minutes ago, tonray said:

Another ruse. They give him immunity and he says he knows nothing about anyone else but what he did and Trump is off the hook. No immunity....go after him and make him sweat.

Hard to say what will happen.  What they are afraid of is without immunity, he'll just plead the 5th and they'll get nothing.  Or not as much as they could.

 

Guaranteed Trump knew.  He's too much of a micro manager not to be involved in everything.  And it had been going on for a long time.  Manafort, Stone, Page and even Trump's son in law.  The dots are starting to connect.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/30/politics/michael-flynn-immunity-testimony/index.html

Quote

 

"Gen. Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit. ... No reasonable person, who has the benefit of advice from counsel, would submit to questioning in such a highly politicized, witch-hunt environment without assurances against unfair prosecution," Robert Kelner, Flynn's lawyer, said in a statement late Thursday.

 

The Wall Street Journal first reported Thursday that Flynn was in talks to try to get a promise of immunity, but that nobody had agreed to his terms yet.

 

 

 

[tonray]

Just now, craigt3365 said:

Hard to say what will happen.  What they are afraid of is without immunity, he'll just plead the 5th and they'll get nothing.  Or not as much as they could.

 

Guaranteed Trump knew.  He's too much of a micro manager not to be involved in everything.  And it had been going on for a long time.  Manafort, Stone, Page and even Trump's son in law.  The dots are starting to connect.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/30/politics/michael-flynn-immunity-testimony/index.html

 

 

 

Actually the failure of the health care plan showed that he  is anything but a micro manager. I think he is just a willing dupe for Bannon's views. His lack of specifoic knowledge about many topics is obvious in his tweets and speeches....he is anything but involved.

[kamahele]

This administration is even  less capable than the Nixon administration was in trying to contain the pending disaster. And this only 60+ days into the presidency. At least Nixon was on his second term when he was found out.... If the President was in the dark about what was happening, he should be getting out in front of the story instead of trying to block witnesses from testifying and trying desperately to change the narrative.

[tonray]

6 minutes ago, kamahele said:

This administration is even  less capable than the Nixon administration was in trying to contain the pending disaster. And this only 60+ days into the presidency. At least Nixon was on his second term when he was found out.... If the President was in the dark about what was happening, he should be getting out in front of the story instead of trying to block witnesses from testifying and trying desperately to change the narrative.

 

I think the difference is that Nixon underneath his obsessive personality was very smart if not brilliant in policy matters, it's just that his ego could not let him use that brilliance. Donald seems to be, at least by what I have seen so far, to be a dumbass with little experience or knowledge in most areas of governance.

Edited March 31, 2017 by tonray

[WaywardWind]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Trump threatened to try to defeat members of the Freedom Caucus - a bloc of conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives - in next year's congressional elections if they continued to defy him.

Fortunately for them, the likelihood of him still being in office in 2018 is getting slimmer by the day.

[tonray]

9 minutes ago, WaywardWind said:

Fortunately for them, the likelihood of him still being in office in 2018 is getting slimmer by the day.

 

The problem here is that the Democrats haven't clue. They have spent the last 20 years asleep at the wheel and the gerrymandering has made most districts untouchable for them. I think no matter how bad the Repubs are, they may just yet retain control. And they still have no answer for the electoral college issue in 2020. Same problem still exists....and Trump unless he somehow is removed from office by the right, is still the #1 contender for the job.

 

This week the Dems trotted out Hilary Clinton to gloat about the defeat of the Health care plan....do they really think she is going to galvanize all those voters who hate her guts and elected Trump into a 2020 win ? They are just as bad...no plan and no clue whatsoever.

[louse1953]

I predicted this would happen and on the very 1st bill,no less.Not looking good Donny,i rekon you'll go down this year.The USA will wake up that this is a bad dude,one of the really bad ones,to use the parlance.Bad luck you can't sack those pesky Rebs and put some of your family in,you know,somebody who will do what they are told.

On another issue of bring "clean coal"back and the jobs,who is gunna stump up the money,banks certainly wont,so it will be the long suffering taxpayer.Hopefully the budget for that gets knocked back as well.

[louse1953]

3 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

It seems that the disintegration of the Trump Presidency is happening even quicker than some predicted! General Flynn seeking immunity is huge!

Sent from my SM-A500F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

Is that right.The rats are jumping early.Wonder what Donny says about his fav boy now.Donny has to blow up soon,such a power freak and controller can't  bottle this up for long and twitter is hardly an outlet for anger and frustration that his will is being disobeyed and him being the most powerful man in the world.Funny ol thing democracy,just when you think it has failed dismally,out she pops,redeemed again.

I rekon he will pull the pin or be forced to for health reasons ans have a rest at the funny farm.

[Berkshire]

44 minutes ago, tonray said:

 

I think the difference is that Nixon underneath his obsessive personality was very smart if not brilliant in policy matters, it's just that his ego could not let him use that brilliance. Donald seems to be, at least by what I have seen so far, to be a dumbass with little experience or knowledge in most areas of governance.

Regarding Trump being a dumbass, you're more right than you know.  Just read an article in the NY Times which is titled "When the President is Ignorant of his own Ignorance."  Some excerpts:

 

[“President Trump seems to have no awareness whatsoever of what he does and does not know,” Steven Nadler, a professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote me. “He is ignorant of his own ignorance.”]

[During his first 63 days in office, Trump made 317 “false or misleading claims,” according to The Washington Post.]

[Donald Trump and the people with whom he has filled his cabinet are perfectly unqualified and unprepared to handle any and all of those developments and trends. The lack of experience and understanding of the world, especially of our historical and contemporary relationship with our European allies and rivals is frightening, especially in today’s world, where the stakes and the dangers are so much greater than ever.]

[Between an impulsive president who seems uninterested in details, an advisory system that does not (yet, at least) produce good advice, a general lack of respect for expertise, and a distrust of intelligence, a crisis with North Korea could go very poorly.]

[Trump himself is abysmally ignorant about both international and domestic affairs, and he is nearly always guided by a single principle: his own self-interest.]

 

That last one explains Trump to a tee.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/opinion/when-the-president-is-ignorant-of-his-own-ignorance.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0

 

[louse1953]

1 hour ago, craigt3365 said:

Such a divisive president.  He's pushing people apart, not bringing them together. 

 

From that MSM link:

Could be explosive as he's been caught red handed illegally communicating with a known foreign spy.  Something that could put him in jail.

Nah,he is too rat cunning for that,that's what the underlings are for.But if they start using the Hitler line,the boss told me to do it,it will get interesting.

[louse1953]

1 hour ago, tonray said:

Another ruse. They give him immunity and he says he knows nothing about anyone else but what he did and Trump is off the hook. No immunity....go after him and make him sweat.

Don't you watch tv,that's not how it works.Off the record talk 1st,anything underhand revealed and immunity will be offered.If he reniges in court,immunity withdrawn.

[darksidedog]

I am sure the Democrats are having a damned good laugh. Why they would want to help him is beyond me.

The man is an idiot and an embarrassment to America.

[FritsSikkink]

1 hour ago, tonray said:

Another ruse. They give him immunity and he says he knows nothing about anyone else but what he did and Trump is off the hook. No immunity....go after him and make him sweat.

It doesn't work like that, you have to come up with some promises where you are going to rat about.

[Andaman Al]

4 hours ago, PatOngo said:

I hope they keep feeding Trump more rope, he will hang himself eventually!

They need to feed him a LOT of rope, he doesn't need to just hang himself, he has his three little piggies, Bannon, Conway, Spicer , Pribus, and that reprehensible white supremacist  that I can't remember the name of that somehow worked his way in to the White House as an Advisor.

[fvw53]

4 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

It seems that the disintegration of the Trump Presidency is happening even quicker than some predicted! General Flynn seeking immunity is huge!

Sent from my SM-A500F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

Usually in the US prosecutors give immunity to small fish in order to fry a big fish : is there in Trump administration still a bigger fish than Lt Gen Flynn?

[johnnybangkok]

has anyone noticed how massively quiet the (previously loud) Trump supporters are right now? 

[Jingthing]

trump in being nominated accomplished a HOSTILE takeover of the republicanist party. It should come as no surprise to anyone that many actual republicanists of various ideologies (far right extremist, libertarian, "moderate", etc.) will not always be reliable to fall into line under such a BIZARRE "leader" especially now that he has basically lost all credibility. He should just quit and get it over with. He's bad for the republicanists, bad for the USA, and bad for the world. 

 

In trump's own style:

Sad.

Bigly. 

Edited March 31, 2017 by Jingthing

[Jingthing]

5 minutes ago, johnnybangkok said:

has anyone noticed how massively quiet the (previously loud) Trump supporters are right now? 

Yet there are still many loyalists. I wonder how far that goes especially if treason charges ever come to be. 

[elgordo38]

Tweet from The Donald to the "rebels" Sorry there is no room in my administration  for politicians that do not see the big picture mine!!

[kevkev1888]

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

I'm calling B.S. on that.

His agenda?

Health care? 

He promised care for all, cheaper and better.

trumpcare which he loudly supported and tried to BULLY all republicans to follow did exactly the OPPOSITE.

I suggest that it's delusional to actually think they represents him keeping his promises. Happily, trumpcare failed, at least for now.

In you own words "for now". Rome was not built in a day! 

Trump has instigated a lot of change, change that is badly needed, and there is much much much more to come. If he only achieves a quarter of it he will have done well.

 

[Jingthing]

10 minutes ago, kevkev1888 said:

In you own words "for now". Rome was not built in a day! 

Trump has instigated a lot of change, change that is badly needed, and there is much much much more to come. If he only achieves a quarter of it he will have done well.

 

trumpcare did not meet his promises. He has betrayed his supporters supporting it. At least those that are paying attention. 

 

I do get it that a segment of hard core trumpists, the kind that actually refer to him as "Daddy" and the "Emperor" aren't interested in facts or details. They are ready to follow their "great leader" off a cliff if he says so. They have total faith in their "strong" leader and are totally on board with the FAKE alternative reality that he has taken pains to create and promote. Not sure what percentage of his paltry 36 percent approval rate is that hard core. 

Edited March 31, 2017 by Jingthing

[Andaman Al]

2 hours ago, fvw53 said:

Usually in the US prosecutors give immunity to small fish in order to fry a big fish : is there in Trump administration still a bigger fish than Lt Gen Flynn?

Apart from Trump and Bannon? there are a few other sharks but those two will be just fine.