NY Times Responds to Trump’s Claim Reporting on Mitch is Inaccurate: ‘We Quoted McConnell’

Ken MeyerApr 3rd, 2019, 10:02 am

President Donald Trump is back on Twitter and attacking The New York Times while claiming that he never pushed for a vote on healthcare before the 2020 election.

I was never planning a vote prior to the 2020 Election on the wonderful HealthCare package that some very talented people are now developing for me & the Republican Party. It will be on full display during the Election as a much better & less expensive alternative to ObamaCare…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2019

…This will be a great campaign issue. I never asked Mitch McConnell for a vote before the Election as has been incorrectly reported (as usual) in the @nytimes, but only after the Election when we take back the House etc. Republicans will always support pre-existing conditions!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2019

Trump’s tweets come hours after he spoke at a National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) event where he got unusually frank about the GOP’s repeated, frustrated efforts to fully repeal Obamacare. Trump has been trying to restart his healthcare endeavors in the last few days, but last night, he said he would postpone the issue until after 2020, said “we blew it” with previous repeal attempts, and said it should’ve happened before Republicans lost the House of Representatives in the 2018 elections.

In terms of Trump’s slam on the Times, his anger clearly stems from their report saying Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell privately warned him that the Senate wouldn’t revisit comprehensive health care reform until 2020 is over with. The Times documented McConnell’s conversations with Trump on the tactics of dealing with health care, all while Trump simultaneously urged the GOP to move forward on the issue in the last few days.

“I pointed out to him the Senate Republicans’ view on dealing with comprehensive health care reform with a Democratic House of Representatives,” McConnell said. “I made it clear to him that we were not going to be doing that in the Senate.”

Maggie Haberman, who helped write the report, has countered Trump on Twitter by noting that they’ve quoted McConnell himself.