Conservative congressman and House Freedom Caucus member Louie Gohmert said on Sunday that the reason a deal wasnt made on repealing Obamacare and the reason President Trump has launched a war against conservatives and Tea Party representatives in Congress is because hes listening to RINOs Paul Ryan and Reince Priebus, who he described as establishment to the core.
Gohmert said that if the GOP establishment got their way in passing the American Health Care Act (AHCA), a faux Obamacare repeal bill that doesnt fully repeal Obamacare but instead only amends it around the edges, keeping its infrastructure in place and many of the free-market crushing regulations, mandates and subsidies that have caused both health insurance premiums and deductibles to unnecessarily skyrocket, it would be a double win for the establishment.
Gohmert said the GOP establishments twofer would be to destroy conservatives the grassroots who stood by the president and to make the president look terrible because the next four years the Trump administration would be defined as a fraud as the bill promised to repeal Obamacare but instead gives even more power to the federal government than the original Obamacare bill.
We were demanding weve got to do some things to bring down prices. People cant stand this, Gohmert said on FOX News Sunday Morning Futures.
Oh, and the president agreed with us twice, Gohmert revealed. And each time Priebus and Ryan say No, No, No, you cant do that. He [President Trump] wanted to make a deal and we were negotiating with Paul, with Kevin McCarthy right up through Tuesday, and all of a sudden they had a meeting and they decided Were so close to having the number we need, lets go to war and get the president to help us go to war against the people who defended the president when Ryan and those guys said abandon him.'
On Thursday, President Trump launched his war against Tea Party conservatives and their only representatives in Congress by threatening to primary members of the House Freedom Caucus in the upcoming 2018 elections:
The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don't get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 30, 2017 |
Also on Thursday, Karl Rove, a longtime enemy of the Tea Party movement, penned an opinion piece in the pro-cronyism Wall Street Journal, in which he put the Freedom Caucus in his crosshairs, writing that the Freedom Caucusers were guilty of political libel against their Republican colleagues for not voting for the RINOCARE bill that has an abysmal 17% approval among Americans.
Then on Saturday, after Rove urge the president to not directly attack the Freedom Caucus but instead have his underlings do the dirty work, Trump social media director, Dan Scavino, followed the directive, specifically calling for Congressman Justin Amash , who won his district by a whopping 22 points last year, to be defeated in 2018 primary:
Hes taking advice from Priebus whos establishment to the core and if it keeps up, he is going to get hurt the way establishment people actually hurt Reagan. The only time Reagan succeeded was when he didnt listen to the establishment folks like Priebus is today and actually followed his own instinct. But Im telling you, the presidents administration will either succeed or fail over the next 30 days. He can work with the people that got him there that defended him when others like Ryan and the establishment were running scared or he can work with us to help him fulfill his promises. But this bill doesnt satisfy any of the promises that we made. Its gonna be bad. Its really gonna be a disaster. |
On Sunday, President Trump tweeted that there is love in the Republican Party. However, its unlikely that the Tea Party conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus all Republicans are feeling the love.
Anybody (especially Fake News media) who thinks that Repeal & Replace of ObamaCare is dead does not know the love and strength in R Party! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2017 |
Heres Rep. Gohmerts full FOX interview from Sunday morning: