White House press secretary Sean Spicer declined to clarify President Trump’s veiled threat against conservative lawmakers in the House Freedom Caucus on Thursday, just hours after the president took to Twitter to threaten its members “if they don’t get on the team.”
“I’m going to let the tweet speak for itself,” Spicer said. “It would be inappropriate to discuss the future of any candidate from this podium.”
Trump has repeatedly vented his frustration with the House Freedom Caucus since several of its members helped defeat a healthcare bill his administration backed last week.
“I think that there’s a few members of the Freedom Caucus…who have expressed a willingness to want to work with him rather than necessarily [act] as a block,” Spicer said. “And I think that there continues to be some promising signs in that, with that.”
Negotiations over the Republican healthcare bill have continued this week after the collapse of support for the American Health Care Act on Friday put Trump and House leadership on the defensive.
But the Obamacare reform plan still does not appear to have enough votes to advance, as Freedom Caucus leaders have argued it does not do enough to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
