TPM - "Trumps Ham-Handed, Incoherent Health Care Message Leaves Senate Flailing"

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/trump-senate-republicans-obamacare-repeal-fail

By ALICE OLLSTEIN Published JULY 19, 2017 1:36 PM

With one of his signature campaign promises—the repeal of Obamacare—all but dead in the Senate, President Donald Trump has for weeks been disinterested and distracted, involving himself only sporadically with ham-handed tactics and incoherent messages for his struggling Republican brethren.

On Wednesday, he summoned all 52 Republican senators to the White House to try to browbeat them into passing some form of a health care bill. The president previewed his message for the lawmakers in an interview with televangelist Pat Robertson—saying he’ll be “very angry” if they can’t pass a bill—and in tweets Wednesday morning that made no case for the merits of the legislation or the difficult politics of curtailing the benefits of millions of people.

I will be having lunch at the White House today with Republican Senators concerning healthcare. They MUST keep their promise to America!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 19, 2017

At the meeting, he threatened bill critic Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV), asking as TV cameras rolled if he wants to “remain a senator,” and demanded the Senate stay in session through the summer recess until they “get it done” on health care.

As former veteran congressional staffer Stan Collender told TPM in April: “He’s thinking of them as underlings and he’s the CEO. But he’s not Congress’ CEO, he’s the president of the United States. They don’t work for him, they work for their constituents.”

Trump’s tin ear for Washington politics was on full display Monday night—the night Republican defectors drove the final nail into the coffin of the latest Obamacare repeal bill. The president hosted a group of senators at White House ostensibly to discuss health care over an elegant steak dinner, but did not invite any of the on-the-fence lawmakers he needed to convince to support the repeal effort. Instead, he dined with a group that already supported the bill, and according to the Washington Post, spent most of the evening recounting his recent trip to France.


snip - more to read at the above link