Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., blamed Senate Republican leaders on Tuesday for the failure of an Obamacare replacement bill and refused to say he has faith in his leadership.
“This was the responsibility of Senate leadership,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday, making a point not to blame Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., by name. “It was in our court and we should have handled this.”
McConnell pulled the plug on the replacement bill Tuesday evening after a pair of Republican senators broke with the party and announced they would vote to block debate on the legislation due to policy disagreements. Johnson defended President Trump from charges of being disengaged and, without naming the Kentucky Republican, repeatedly directed blame to the majority leader’s office.
“Who wrote the bill?” he asked rhetorically when reporters tried to get him to blame McConnell.
Johnson’s unusually open criticism of McConnell was carried over from Tuesday, when he accused leadership of causing “a breach of trust” in the course of the Obamacare repeal talks. Johnson had supported the GOP leadership’s replacement bill, coaxed by the Medicaid reforms contained in the legislation. But a report that McConnell had assured moderate Republicans that the measures would never be implemented angered Johnson.
“I think it’s a real breach of trust, those types of comments,” Johnson said Tuesday.
Soon after, Utah Sen. Mike Lee and Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran announced they would not back the GOP leadership plan, rendering Johnson’s last-minute skepticism moot. But Johnson’s criticism is perhaps the most public and pointed attack on McConnell by a Republican senator since Texas Sen. Ted Cruz accused him of lying to colleagues in 2015 — an attack that took place as Cruz geared up for an anti-establishment presidential run.
“I found those comments very troubling,” Johnson said Wednesday of McConnell’s sales pitch to moderates.
Johnson told the Washington Examiner that he and McConnell had “a phone call” after his “breach of trust” comments, but he wouldn’t discuss the details of a private conversation. Whatever was said, it didn’t inspire Johnson to pledge his confidence in McConnell.
When a reporter in the gaggle asked if Johnson “still [has] faith in McConnell as leader,” the Wisconsin Republican demurred.
“I found those comments very troubling,” he said, repeating his previous statement.
The reporter pressed him, “So you’re not going to say yes to that?”
“I have trouble with those comments,” Johnson demurred, again.
