Trump has invented a demonstrably false excuse for botching the health-care vote — and he's sticking to it

(Image credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

last updated 28 September 2017

President Trump is apparently convinced that Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) is in the hospital, even though Cochran himself has reportedly clarified that "I'm not hospitalized." While the Mississippi senator is recovering from a urological issue, he is "recuperating" at home.

You wouldn't know it from listening to Trump, though: "We have the votes for health care," the president told reporters Wednesday. "We have one senator that's in the hospital. He can't vote, because he's in the hospital." After answering a quick question about Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, Trump returned to the topic of Cochran: "We have the votes [for health care], but we can't do it now because we have somebody in a hospital," he went on. "We have great respect for that gentleman, by the way. He's a fantastic man … in other words, he can't come here and vote because he's in the hospital."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Then, in an interview for Fox & Friends that was also recorded Wednesday, Trump returned to the hospital excuse. "We have the votes, but reconciliation is the disaster," Trump said. "But as you know, it ends on Friday. So we don't have enough time, because we have one senator who's a 'yes' vote, a great person, but he's in the hospital." Of course, as Slate points out, "Republicans don't have 50 votes for the bill even counting Cochran."

Explore More

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.