What a difference a week makes. Last Thursday, Donald Trump and Mike Pence met with the far-right House Freedom Caucus to try to win them over on Trumpcare. That effort notoriously failed, and this Thursday, a Republican civil war appears to be brewing:
Is Trump suggesting primaries of Freedom Caucus members? Would that be primaries from the right, the left, or the Trump Uber Alles? A Freedom Caucus member fired back:
Similarly, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), an ally of the Freedom Caucus, tweeted at Trump that “it's a swamp not a hot tub. We both came here to drain it. SwampCare polls 17%. sad.”
Nor was the Republican infighting confined to Trump and the Freedom Caucus. After House Speaker Paul Ryan went on CBS This Morning and said he didn’t want Trump to work with Democrats on health care, because it’s “hardly a conservative thing,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) tweeted that “We have come a long way in our country when the speaker of one party urges a president NOT to work with the other party to solve a problem.” This is a wee bit disingenuous, since Corker has certainly been present for and indeed complicit in much of the coming a long way that got Republicans to this point, but it’s still a delight to see.