Hours ahead of the House vote on the American Health Care Act, White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Thursday evening said House Speaker Paul Ryan should not resign if the bill fails on Friday.
Fox News fill-in host Eric Bolling asked Spicer if the top House official should take the blame and resign for making the Obamacare replacement bill’s journey appear easier than it would be.
“Absolutely not,” Spicer said. “This has been a great team effort on the Republican behalf, but at the end of the day, I don’t think that will be necessary because I think the president has made a very, very strong case as to why this is everything that we have talked about.”
Spicer added that President Trump was not disappointed with Ryan or other House GOP leaders.
“Speaker Ryan and Leader McCarthy, Congressman Scalise have been tremendous in terms of helping to talk to members, continue to reach out, put aspects in the bill that people wanted to make it stronger and better,” Spicer said.
The House was scheduled to vote on the Obamacare replacement bill on Thursday, but indefinitely postponed it. Late Thursday, House Republicans announced they planned to vote on the new bill Friday. Spicer was adamant that the administration would see the legislation passed to the Senate, citing the similar path to victory Trump saw in November.
“This is the same way he campaigned,” Spicer said. “He went into the eleventh hour — he made the case to the American people and he won and I think we’re going to see the same level of success when it comes to this effort as well.”
