Conservative media outlets supportive of President Donald Trump are on the attack, already blaming House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republican lawmakers for a possible failure of the American Healthcare Act, which is up for a vote in the House on Friday and may not have the necessary votes to pass.
Fox News host Sean Hannity opened his Thursday night show with a monologue defending Trump and denouncing Republican lawmakers, including Ryan, who is leading the effort to repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, for failing to come together over the bill.
“It’s time to fix this mess that you have made for the president, and it’s time for you to give the American people a bill that you have now promised them for almost eight years,” Hannity said. “For the love of God, after eight years, can you please do your job?”
Meanwhile, the Drudge Report, which has remained mostly quiet throughout the healthcare debate, featured a photo of Ryan with the headline, “House sets risky health care vote, pass it to know what’s in it.”
The headline was apparently referring to former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s now infamous comment in 2010, when Congress was considering the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, in which she seemed to suggest legislators should pass the bill without fully understanding its contents.
“We have to pass the bill,” Pelosi said at the time. “So that you can find out what is in it — away from the fog of the controversy.”
A Friday Breitbart News story aggregating a New York Magazine piece by Gabriel Sherman read, “Report: Steve Bannon Says American Health Care Act ‘Written by the Insurance Industry.'”
The story focused on Trump strategist Steve Bannon’s reported longtime dislike for Ryan, suggesting that Bannon privately hopes the current version of the healthcare bill will fail.
Failure to pass the healthcare bill would represent a huge defeat for Trump and congressional Republicans. Throughout the 2016 campaign, the GOP campaigned on the promise it would repeal Obama’s signature health law.
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