President Trump wants Democrats to work with him on passing legislation but doesn’t believe they would do anything that might be seen as helping his agenda.
“It would be so great if the Democrats and Republicans could get together, wrap their arms around it, and come up with something that everybody’s happy with. It’s so easy, but we won’t get one Democrat vote, not one,” Trump said on Fox News in an interview taped Friday that aired Sunday.
“And if it was the greatest bill ever proposed in mankind, we wouldn’t get a vote. And that’s the terrible thing. So there is – well look, their theme is resist. I’ve never heard of anything like this resist.”
Trump said the partisan hostility in Washington, which some have accused him of escalating during his campaign and his time in office, is crippling the political system.
He pointed to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., going on the Senate floor to criticize the Republican Senate healthcare bill weeks before it was released as an example.
“He was criticizing a bill that he had no idea what was in the bill. But that’s called the resistance, and that’s a terrible word,” he said. “Think of it. Their theme is resist. Their theme should be, let’s get together, envelop. Let’s get together. But their theme is resist.”
Trump said he thinks there’s enough Republican support in the Senate to get the healthcare bill through the upper chamber. Several Republicans have announced they cannot support the bill as currently written, and Republicans can only afford two defectors in order to pass the bill.
“I don’t think they’re that far off. Famous last words, right? But I think we’re going to get there. Can’t promise. I think we’re going to get there,” he said.
