President Trump reportedly spoke to Paul Ryan around 3 p.m. ET on Friday and agreed the House speaker should pull the health-care bill, a leadership aide told Politico. The vote was originally scheduled for Thursday afternoon before being pushed back to Friday.
Many organizations counting "no" votes found as many as 34 Republicans said they would oppose the bill ahead of the planned vote; if the legislation lost more than 22 Republican votes, the proposal would not have passed the lower chamber. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer had indicated in his early afternoon news conference that the vote was going to go ahead anyway, despite apparently not having enough support to pass, but refused to reveal the president's "strategy."
Trump had issued an ultimatum to House Republicans on Thursday night: Pass the American Health Care Act on Friday, or lose the opportunity to repeal ObamaCare once and for all. Despite two days of tense negotiations — mostly with the far-right House Freedom Caucus, members of which oppose the bill for retaining too much of ObamaCare — it appears Ryan failed to get enough votes.
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