Mediaboss Marketing

Sign Up for

Our free email newsletters

In the past, presidents have told big lies mostly for one of two reasons. In the midst of scandal or failure, they told lies to protect themselves and deny that they had done wrong: I am not a crook, we did not trade arms for hostages, I did not have sexual relations with that woman. Or they lied to convince the public to go along with a policy initiative, whether a war or a tax cut or a new program, when the truth was insufficiently persuasive.

Unlike his predecessors, President Trump lies for any reason at all.

I imagine the sinking feeling his aides get when he blurts out another whopper. "Now I'm going to have to go out and defend this," they say with a sigh, then huddle together to arrive at the least laughable spin they can come up with, so they can rationalize the lie which Trump will of course be unwilling to retreat from.

White House staff have little choice but to reinforce, justify, and repeat their boss' lies, though I suppose they could retain some shred of dignity and integrity by quitting. But what about Trump's fellow Republicans, particularly the ones in Congress? They're in an uncomfortable position, knowing that he's still popular with the GOP base and so not having his back could have electoral costs. Being a "maverick" might sound appealing, but not when it's going to cost you lots of votes or hinder your ability to work with the rest of the party on your legislative priorities.

So with just a few exceptions, Republicans have chosen to get in line when Trump goes off on one of his near-daily flights of fantasy. Or at the very least, they try to avoid the subject and run from reporters who might bring it up. But they can't escape the taint of this presidency, and the longer it goes, the more likely each one of them is to get dirty.

Consider this remarkable interview Trump did with Time, in which he argued that it was fine for him to claim that Barack Obama tapped his phones, because: "When I said wiretapping, it was in quotes. Because a wiretapping is, you know today it is different than wiretapping. It is just a good description. But wiretapping was in quotes." Before we go on, let's acknowledge that even this idiotic explanation is false; I refer you to this tweet, free of any quotation marks or vague references that might be interpreted to refer broadly to surveillance:

Nevertheless, this is one of Trump's common explanations for his lies, that he didn't actually lie if he got the lie from somebody else ("Well, I'm not, well, I think, I'm not saying, I'm quoting, Michael, I'm quoting highly respected people and sources from major television networks"). When asked whether the country will be able to believe him when he asks for their trust during a future crisis, he responded, "The country believes me. Hey. I went to Kentucky two nights ago, we had 25,000 people in a massive basketball arena." In other words: People can trust that I tell the truth because my fans still come out to see me.

This is not exactly a compelling defense. So every time Trump says something ridiculous, Republicans have to ask themselves: Do I help him on this or not? Some lies he tells are exaggerated versions of the lies they themselves tell, like the idea that three million people voted illegally. Republicans have all invested in the lie that says there is massive voter fraud; most just are careful enough not to put any numbers on it.

Other lies, though, are purely personal to Trump, like the idea that he had the largest inauguration crowd in history. They don't justify a policy or serve some other collective purpose; they're just about Trump feeling good. Defending him on that does nothing to help you with anyone but Trump himself.

Then there are questions that aren't about policy, but threaten the administration to a profound enough degree that Republicans may feel they have no choice but to rally to Trump's defense. The ever-widening Russia scandal falls into that category, which is why we've seen only a few Republicans admit that there's something troubling about a hostile foreign dictator manipulating our election, or that a report that the president's campaign manager had a $10 million per year contract with a Russian oligarch to advance Vladimir Putin's political interests might raise some alarming questions.

If Republicans are tempted to distance themselves from Trump over the Russia scandal, they'll probably be stopped by the realization that any serious threat to his presidency quickly becomes an equally serious threat to their agenda. A president crippled by a major scandal will be far less able to deliver on tax cuts for the wealthy or deregulation for corporations.

And that was the reason almost every Republican lined up behind Trump in the first place: They may have had their reservations about him, but he'd help them do all the things they'd been yearning to do for eight years. Yet now they can't escape the devil's bargain they made.

There are some Republicans more enthusiastic about Trump than others and some that are more sycophantic toward him. But sooner or later, almost all of them will wind up defending him, whether it's about particular lies he's told or scandals he's embroiled in. The stain of cooperating with Donald Trump will be on all of them, and it will never wear off.

See original here:
Why Republicans dutifully defend Trump's most ridiculous lies - The Week Magazine

Facing a growing rebellion within his own ranks, Speaker Paul Ryan pulled the Republican Obamacare replacement plan from the House floor on Friday just before a scheduled vote.

The decision is a staggering defeat for Ryan and President Donald Trump in their first attempt to partner on major legislation and fulfill a seven-year Republican promise to repeal Obamacare. And it comes a day after Trump issued an ultimatum to House Republicans to vote for the bill or live with Obamacare.

Story Continued Below

GOP lawmakers decided they can, in fact, live with Obamacare, at least for now.

A Republican leadership aide said Trump and Ryan spoke by phone at 3 p.m. and that the president asked the speaker to pull the bill. Ryan told reporters that his advice to Trump was to cancel the vote.

But the reality is that Ryan and his leadership team had been bleeding votes all day and were not close to passing the American Health Care Act. The speaker went to the White House and told Trump as much just an hour earlier.

Republicans were begging Ryan and party leaders to pull the bill to save them from having to vote on an unpopular measure. But Trump badly wanted to move ahead so he would "know who my friends are," he said, according to a Republican lawmaker who met with him. Democrats were unwavering in their opposition, and conservative outside groups despised the bill from the start.

And while GOP leaders had called Trump "the ulimate closer," he wasn't able to move many votes, especially among hard-line conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus. Trump admitted after the bill was pulled that he was "10 to 15 votes" shy of victory, a stunning margin considering how much effort he and Ryan had put into their lobbying campaign during the last week.

Ryan also knew, though, that if the bill had come up for a vote, it would have failed by a much larger margin than the whip counts. Once rank-and-file members knew it would fail, they'd reverse course and vote "no" in order to protect themselves politically, which their leaders would bless. That much larger margin of defeat would be an even bigger setback for Trump. In a sense, Ryan protected Trump from his own combative instincts, said GOP insiders.

"I will not sugarcoat this, this is a disappointing day for us," Ryan said at a press conference following the stunning announcement. "This is a setback, no two ways about it."

Ryan admitted that the Affordable Care Act, enacted seven years earlier almost to the day, "remains the law of the land... We're going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future."

Ryan insisted Trump was not at fault for the failure.

"The president gave his all in this effort," Ryan added. "He's been fantastic."

The Freedom Caucus the group that took down Speaker John Boehner remained unwilling to compromise with Trump and Ryan, believing that their bill didn't do nearly enough to unwind Obamacare.

"Some of the members of that caucus were voting with us, but not enough were," Ryan said. "I met with their chairman today, and he made it clear that the votes weren't going to be there from their team. And that was sufficient to provide the balance of votes to have this not pass."

Democrats, for their part, were doing cartwheels in the Capitol. They've bloodied Trump, bashed Ryan, and showed that even in a GOP-run Washington, they still matter big time.

Today is a great day for our country," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). "It's a victory. What happened on the floor is a victory for the American people for our seniors, for people with disabilities, for our children, for our veterans."

On the other side of the aisle, the internal GOP finger-pointing has already begun, showing the long-term damage inside the Republican Conference from this fight.

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), who helped craft the Republican health care legislation, was livid after the decision to pull the bill.

"The architects of Obamacare, they own this damn thing," the Texas Republican said. "There were people who were not interested in solving the problem. They win today."

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), a member of the Freedom Caucus, said the bill's demise was a "good day for America."

Despite Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows' central role in defeating the bill and thus leaving Obamacare as the law of the land, the North Carolina Republican insisted he still wanted to repeal the Democratic health care law.

"I remain wholeheartedly committed to following through on this promise," Meadows said in a statement. "President Trump is committed to repealing Obamacare and replacing it with a system that works for American families, and I look forward to working with him to do just that."

Trump has staked his early presidency on repealing and replacing Obamacare, embracing his image as a dealmaker and closer throughout the process. House leaders were happy to oblige as well, referring to Trump as the ultimate closer as he met with reluctant House members.

Hes left everything on the field when it comes to this bill, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Friday afternoon, describing Trump as working tirelessly to get the bill across the finish line. He added, You cant force someone to vote a certain way.

Get breaking news when it happens in your inbox.

By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.

As Ryan and his allies scrambled to convince wary colleagues to back their health care plan, they watched as conservative and moderates in their caucus began to declare their opposition. As defections mounted, Ryan traveled to the White House to reveal to Trump his faltering whip count and to discuss whether to pull the bill. But the administration seemed intent on proceeding as planned.

We want the vote," a senior administration official said as Ryan made his way up Pennsylvania Avenue. "If they want to go against the president, they should do it on live TV."

Ultimately, though, Ryan prevailed. Moderate Republicans such as Virginia Rep. Barbara Comstock and Ohio Rep. David Joyce disclosed their opposition even as Ryan was meeting with Trump. It became clear early Friday afternoon that the bill was poised for defeat, as members on the fence broke against it.

The bill met sharp resistance from both ends of the Republican caucus, as hard-line conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus contended it failed to do away with Obamacares core components and moderates argued that its curbs on Medicaid could harm vulnerable constituents. Ultimately, those competing pressures proved irreconcilable.

Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), a moderate who came out against the bill two days ago, insisted that Friday's debacle was actually not a big deal and said its time to move on."

"There are a lot of people in this building who talk and say everything is catastrophic and cataclysmic, well we know thats not the case," Dent said. "If you want to do health care reform, do it on a bipartisan basis. We have to sit down and regroup.

Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) warned it wasnt the end of Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare.

The game is not over, so its not a win or loss," he said. Were gonna get back together after we get a weekends rest, were going to assess where we are. The votes were razor thin, from what I understand, so were close to where we need to be."

Read more:
Republicans yank Obamacare repeal bill - POLITICO

Republicans abruptly pulled their health care bill from the House floor on Friday, just minutes ahead of a planned vote, dealing a devastating blow to efforts by President Donald Trump and the GOP to repeal and replace Obamacare.

"This is a disappointing day for us," Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters shortly after the bill was yanked. "Doing big things is hard. All of us, myself included, will need time to reflect how we got to this moment, what we could have done to do it better."

Ryan said he told Trump around noon the White House that they didn't have the Republican votes needed to pass the bill. "I told him that the best thing I think to do is to pull this bill and he agreed with that decision," Ryan said.

Speaking via phone later at 3:00 p.m. EST, Trump said Democrats in the House all of whom had planned to vote against the bill shoulder the blame for the defeat. "Obamacare is exploding," the president said in the Oval Office. "With no Democrat support, we couldn't quite get there. We were just a very small number of votes short in terms of getting our bill passed."

"I'm disappointed," Trump said, adding, "I'm a little surprised to be honest with you."

The president thanked Republicans in the House, especially Ryan, saying, "I think Paul really worked hard" to get the bill passed.

"We all learned a lot, we learned a lot about loyalty, we learned a lot about the vote-getting process, we learned a lot about arcane rules," Trump said.

Trump predicted that Obamacare would soon "explode" and that its collapse would bring Democrats to the table to negotiate a bipartisan health care bill with him.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she was proud of Democrats for standing in unison against the GOP bill, calling the result "a victory for the American people."

"The unity of our House Democratic members was a very important message to the country that we are very proud of the Affordable Care Act," she told reporters.

But ultimately, it was Republicans who sealed their own fate. The diverse caucus was unable to unify, even on a six-year old campaign pledge that has handed the Republican Party victory in the past three elections.

Leadership attempted to craft a bill to appeal to the most moderate factions of the party as well as the most conservative, but the two sides couldn't come to a compromise. The result was a bill that few liked.

Republicans left a closed-door conference Friday afternoon where they were informed the bill would not be brought to a vote feeling defeated after an exhausting few days.

Rep. Mark Meadows R.-N.C., the chairman and primary spokesman for the Freedom Caucus, which is the conservative group that stood their ground in opposition, said nothing but "no comment." He later put out a statement saying he remains "wholeheartedly committed" to repealing Obamacare.

And the finger pointing began.

When Rep. Mike Coffman, a Republican from a swing district in Colorado, was asked where the process went wrong, he said that members who didn't support the bill "are going to have to go home and explain that."

RELATED: Trump Blames Democrats

Meanwhile, Rep. Justin Amash, R-Michigan, a member of the conservative bloc that Coffman referenced, said that Ryan was "wrong" to offer a "binary" choice of vote for the bill or support Obamacare.

"A true legislative process is where we act as a deliberative body and we try to reflect the will of the American people," Amash said.

"I think we got a group of people that are traditionally a 'no' on everything, and they vote as a bloc and you gotta penetrate that block," Coffman said.

The move to halt the vote came after a chaotic week of intense negotiations to convince at least 215 Republicans to support the leadership-written health care bill, but it was ultimately not enough to fulfill a seven-year long pledge to undo the Affordable Care Act, one of Trump's major themes on the campaign trail last year.

The pressure for passage began in earnest earlier in the week when the president traveled to Capitol Hill for the big sell and warned Republicans that they would lose their seats and the House majority if they failed to follow through with their campaign pledge.

Trump and Ryan continued to meet with Republicans who were undecided or against the measure throughout the week and twice changed the bill in a bid to attract more support.

But those efforts weren't enough to convince moderate Republicans that it wouldn't harm people in their districts who have enjoyed expanded Medicaid coverage and financial assistance in purchasing health care. And they weren't enough for the conservative Republicans who thought that the government was too involved in in the health care industry and that it doesn't do enough to reduce the cost of health insurance premiums.

Follow this link:
Republicans Pull Health Care Bill From House Floor

House Republicans simply did not have enough GOP votes to pass the health care bill, which also was supported by President Donald Trump.

Republican leaders pulled the bill from the House floor minutes ahead of a schedule vote, rather than watch it go down to defeat.

According to a tally by NBC News, at least 34 Republicans had said publicly over the last few days that they were planning to vote against the measure or leaning toward voting no on the "American Health Care Act." It's possible there were other Republican lawmakers who also would have voted no but had not yet made their position public. All House Democrats had planned to vote against the bill.

Related: Trump Warns: GOP Will Lose Seats By Opposing Health Care Bill

Here are the House Republicans who opposed the bill:

Jim Jordan (OH)

Mark Meadows (NC)

Justin Amash (MI)

Dave Brat (VA)

Raul Labrador (ID)

Mo Brooks (AL)

Rob Wittman (VA)

Thomas Massie (KY)

Tom Garrett (VA)

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL)

Leonard Lance (NJ)

Louie Gohmert (TX)

John Katko (NY)

Brian Fitzpatrick (PA)

Walter Jones (NC)

Ted Budd (NC)

Mark Sanford (SC)

Rick Crawford (AR)

Ted Yoho (FL)

Scott DesJarlais (TN)

Paul Gosar (AZ)

Rod Blum (IA)

Andy Harris (MD)

Dan Donovan (NY)

Frank LoBiondo (NJ)

David Young (IA)

Charlie Dent (PA)

Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA)

Mark Amodei (NV)

Daniel Webster (FL)

Andy Biggs (AZ)

Rodney Frelinghuysen (NJ)

Dave Joyce (OH)

Barbara Comstock (VA)

Read the rest here:
These Republicans Could Doom GOP Health Bill - NBC News

Folks in Washington need a civics lesson. As Americans outside the beltway know, our federal government consists of the executive, legislative branch and judicial branches, and each has a duty to use its Constitutional authority in the best interests of all of us.

The executive branch that would be President Trump - has been working hard to keep the promises he made to the American people. But the legislative branch is not doing its part. The effort to repeal and replace ObamaCare, a promise not only Trump made to voters, but one virtually every Republican lawmaker signed on to, has been contentious, unorganized and disjointed.

And now, it is in jeopardy.

For seven long years, the GOP ran on repealing and replacing ObamaCare. They said, "Give us the House." They got that in 2010. They said, "Give us the House and the Senate." They got that in 2014. Then they said, "Give us the House, the Senate and the presidency." On Nov. 8, they got that wish, and frankly, in spite of many Republicans not even supporting the nominee of their party.

In a perfect world, the work on repealing and replacement of ObamaCare would have begun on Nov. 9. And in a perfect world, the GOP would have built consensus among the different factions within the GOP -- meaning the moderates, the conservatives, the Freedom Caucus, the Study Group -- before ever unveiling the bill. That, too, never happened.

Instead, in the two weeks leading up to the release of this bill, House members were saying they were dissatisfied with the legislative process. They were being left in the dark, they had concerns that the bill would not work for their constituents. And, by the way, they never got to see it. So once the American Health Care Act was really revealed, infighting and a public civil war ensued.

The bill was quickly labeled "RyanCare" after its champion, House Speaker Paul Ryan. Others called it "ObamaCare lite." President Trump didn't write this legislation, yet he was tasked with bringing together all the GOP factions and special interests to strike a deal. Respected groups and think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, the Club for Growth, FreedomWorks, Cato, Americans for Prosperity, and frankly, every major conservative radio talk show host in the country and the American people, were all confused, angered and frustrated.

House Republicans the legislative branch were clearly ill-prepared for this moment to lead. They have now failed the president, and it's starting to look like they're the gang that can't shoot straight. President Trump was not served well by his party in the House of Representatives, and he has been put in the position now to do their job and marshal the votes to pass the bill.

My advice tonight for Ryan and the House Republicans is to do what they should have done from the beginning. Get everyone in a room, take away their phones, order pizza, get some beer and lock the doors. The meeting should include moderates, the GOP Study Group, the Freedom Caucus, members of the U.S. Senate, because we have to deal with the reconciliation and procedural issues. The White House should be represented, including the vice president, the Health and Human Services secretary.

And the meeting is not over until they have a deal a majority of the House can support. Even at this hour, there's still time.

House members, it is time to serve your president and the people you represent. It's time for you to fix this and show the American people that they did the right thing by giving you the power and the authority to lead.

Adapted from Sean Hannitys monologue on Hannity, March 24, 2017

Sean Hannity currently serves as host of FOX News Channel's (FNC) Hannity (weekdays 10-11PM/ET). He joined the network in 1996 and is based in New York. Click here for more information on Sean Hannity.

Continue reading here:
Sean Hannity: House Republicans leave Trump with heavy ...