Trump swears he 'wanted' to delay ObamaCare replacement, something Republicans reportedly begged him to do

President Trump is putting off trying to replace ObamaCare until after the 2020 election — but he says he "wanted" to do so.

Trump on Tuesday spoke to reporters after he said on Twitter that Republicans would not vote on a replacement for the Affordable Care Act until after the 2020 presidential election. This came after Trump last week suddenly renewed his ObamaCare fight, with his Justice Department arguing the entire law should struck down, and with Trump saying he had asked Republican senators to work on a replacement plan, per CNN.

But Republicans expressed their frustration with this effort publicly and privately, and even his own 2020 campaign manager and the chair of the Republican National Committee told him they "could not understand what he was doing," The New York Times reports. CNN reports that Republicans including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) spoke with Trump directly about this, with McConnell reportedly calling Trump and getting him to commit to putting off legislative action until after next year's election.

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Still, Trump said on Tuesday, apparently in response to a shouted question about whether McConnell asked him to delay these plans, "No, I wanted to delay it myself." McConnell himself on Tuesday said that he "made it clear to [Trump] we were not going to be doing that in the Senate" and that "he accepted that." Brendan Morrow