Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chair of the House Freedom Caucus, responded Sunday to President Trump's tweeted attack on his group of legislators for their role in defeating the American Health Care Act, the insurance bill Republican leadership supported but the conservatives lawmakers opposed.
"Congressman," said ABC's This Week host George Stephanopoulos, "the president says he's going to move on, and he's blaming you for 'saving Planned Parenthood, saving ObamaCare.'" Meadows argued, contra Trump, that this "is not the end of the debate" and to end the health-care conversation now is "like saying Tom Brady lost at halftime" in the 2017 Super Bowl.
"We may be in overtime," Meadows conceded, "but I can tell you at the very end of the day, the most valuable player will be President Trump on this because he will deliver." Meadows expressed hope that conservative and moderate wings of the GOP can work together to craft a new health-care bill soon.
House Freedom Caucus Vice Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) took a less conciliatory note while speaking on Fox News Sunday. "The fact that we opposed [the AHCA], we did the country a favor because this bill didn't repeal ObamaCare," he said. "Let's be responsible, get back to work and do what we told the American people what we were going to accomplish, which is repeal ObamaCare and replace it with a patient-centered health-care program."