President Trump has offered an ultimatum to conservatives: hold the vote on the American Health Care Act and pass it, or he’s done negotiating and Republicans will end up voting with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to keep Obamacare law of the land.
But some recalcitrant Republicans maintain that their ‘no’ vote on the bill is all in an effort to save President Trump from the wrath of voters come Election Day 2020.
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie said Wednesday on CNN that “we’re afraid he’s a one-term president if this passes. We are trying to save him.”
When asked by host Kate Bolduan whether he felt he’d lose his seat over his opposition to the legislation, as Trump warned, Massie was confident he wouldn’t.
“[I]n Kentucky, the vote against this bill is still the right vote, whether Democrats are for no or Republicans are for no, there’s just no constituency for this bill in Kentucky,” he replied.
“The phone calls to my office are running 275 against versus 4 -- only 4 votes from my constituents who are in favor of this. So this -- electorally voting for this is bad today and it’s going to be really bad in two or three years when the changes start kicking in and health insurance prices start going through the roof," he added.
Massie concluded by noting that Trump fared much better when he actually listened to conservatives.
“[W]hen President Trump took the advice of the Heritage [Foundation], the Federalist Society, and came up with a good Supreme Court nominee, he was a hero. But then when he started taking the advice of [House Speaker] Paul Ryan and lobbyists here in Washington, DC, his ratings went down 10 points. And I hope that’s what he sees from this, that we’re trying to save him from bad advice, and maybe he’ll start taking advice from those conservatives again,” he concluded.