House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., lashed out at President Trump Tuesday for his attempts to intimidate members of the House Freedom Caucus into voting for the American Health Care Act, which is set to be voted on Thursday in the House.
Trump made a visit to Capitol Hill Tuesday morning to address the House Republican conference where called for members to support the AHCA and called out Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., the House Freedom Caucus chairman, by name. Meadows and the HFC have opposed the measure since it was released more than two weeks ago, and Hoyer told reporters that Trump’s tactics against Meadows is a continuation of how his presidential campaign.
“[Rep.] Jim Jordan says ‘nothing changed. We’ve still got lots of problems with this bill. Opposition is still strong with our group,'” Hoyer said, referring to the meeting. “Maybe that’s why Donald Trump was here — to threaten people as he threatened Mark Meadows.”
“Not only did he threaten him, he asked him to stand up. His wink, which was reported, meant nothing,” Hoyer said. “The threat was real, confrontational. What Donald Trump does — threaten his opponents. Bullies his opponents.”
Hoyer said he believes Trump hasn’t even read the bill yet and argued that “it would be complicated for him.”
Some Republicans who were in the meeting with Trump, however, disagreed with Hoyer’s characterization and believe Trump’s calling out of Meadows was meant as a form of ribbing. Hoyer pushed back against that, and also said he doesn’t see the HFC as an ally of Democrats even though it opposes the bill.
“I would not refer to the Freedom Caucus as an ally,” Hoyer said. “They have, in this case, similar objectives for vastly different reasons.”
Republicans have continued to push for the bill ahead of the planned Thursday vote. Trump has met with Republicans in a push to convince holdouts to support the bill, including separate meetings with the Republicans Study Committee and the HFC.
