“This isn’t a DICTATORSHIP”
Friday’s press briefing, Press Secretary Sean Spicer was inundated with questions on the floundering GOP health care bill, including, if it does fail to garner enough support — something that seems likely given the bill lacks over 30 needed votes — who is to blame.
While refusing to admit the bill may fail, Spicer responded to a question about if the buck stopped with Trump by saying this:
“Like I said earlier, you can’t force someone to vote a certain way. I think in the sense that…he has done every single thing, the answer is ‘yes.’”
He then continued on: “At the end of the day, this isn’t a dictatorship.”
Then, echoing earlier comments from Trump that if the GOP members do not vote for the bill they may risk not getting re-elected, Spicer added: “As the President made clear, they are going to have go back and answer to their constituents why they didn’t fulfill a pledge they made.”
Just prior to the press briefing, Paul Ryan met with Trump at the White House to, according to reports, let Trump know the bill did not have enough votes to pass.
The vote is, according to Spicer, still scheduled for this afternoon.