Trump, Republicans withdraw new health care bill in humiliating setback
US President Donald Trump suffered a bitter defeat Friday in his first major legislative challenge
In a humiliating failure, US President Donald Trump and GOP leaders pulled their bill to repeal “Obamacare” off the House floor Friday when it became clear it would fail badly — after seven years of nonstop railing against the law. Democrats said Americans can “breathe a sigh of relief.” Trump said the current law was imploding “and soon will explode.”
Thwarted by two factions of fellow Republicans, from the centre and far right, House Speaker Paul Ryan said President Barack Obama’s health care law, the GOP’s No. 1 target in the new Trump administration, will remain in place “for the foreseeable future.”
It was a stunning defeat for the new president after he had demanded House Republicans delay no longer and vote on the legislation Friday, pass or fail.
His gamble failed. Instead Trump, who campaigned as a master deal-maker and claimed that he alone could fix the nation’s health care system, saw his ultimatum rejected by Republican lawmakers who made clear they answer to their own voters, not to the president.
Watch: a humiliating defeat for Trump
He “never said repeal and replace it in 64 days,” a dejected but still combative Trump said at the White House, though he repeatedly shouted during the presidential campaign that it was going down on Day One of his term.
