Sen. Bernie Sanders and President Donald Trump seem to agree on one thing when it comes to the failure of the GOP health care bill: Blame the Democrats.
“Democrats should take credit for killing a really, really bad piece of legislation,” the Independent senator from Vermont told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Friday night.
“Poll after poll showed that’s exactly what the American people did not want,” Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats in the Senate, said of the bill.
Chaos on the Hill surrounding the GOP’s plan to repeal and replace Obamacare came to an anti-climactic conclusion Friday afternoon, when it was announced that House Republicans would pull their own health care bill — and the Affordable Care Act would remain in place.
At a news conference, House Speaker Paul Ryan acknowledged that he and his Republican counterparts just didn’t have the votes to pass the bill.
Still, Trump said Democrats should be blamed for whatever happens next on health care.
“The best thing we can do, politically speaking, is let Obamacare explode. It is exploding right now,” Trump said, adding that the “losers” in the health care battle were Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer, the President added.
Trump also praised House leadership for their efforts and welcomed bipartisan efforts to reform health care in the future.
Democrats, however, were thrilled with the outcome.
“We defeated it because we heard the American people, we fought for them and today we won for them,” Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on “Outfront.” “And what we can do next is work with Republicans to improve the Affordable Care Act.”
