White House health care victory short-lived as Russia probe looms

After Trump's biggest legislative victory yet, momentum slows as the Senate settles in to rework the bill and Russia’s election interference takes center stage in hearings.

President Donald Trump’s health care victory lap is already grinding to a halt.

After the White House's biggest legislative victory yet with the House’s narrow passage Thursday of the American Health Care Act, momentum will slow as the Senate settles in to rework the bill — potentially from scratch. The White House is also heading for a political buzzsaw as Russia’s election interference takes center stage in congressional hearings.

Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates heads to Capitol Hill on Monday to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador and her efforts to warn the Trump administration about Flynn’s changing story. The ex-adviser was already in the headlines after The Washington Post and Associated Press reported Friday that Flynn had been warned by transition officials about speaking to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Meanwhile, the health care bill that the White House spent the weekend celebrating appears destined for the trash can on the other side of the Capitol.

"First of all, the House bill is not going to come before us,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a moderate who is emerging as a powerful voice in the health care fight, told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. "The Senate is starting from scratch. We're going to draft our own bill. And I'm convinced that we're going to take the time to do it right.”

The White House is hopeful for a vote in the Senate by the end of June but also wary of placing deadlines for fear of appearing heavy-handed, a senior administration official said.

Even so, Trump took to Twitter on Sunday to encourage senators along: “Republican Senators will not let the American people down! ObamaCare premiums and deductibles are way up - it was a lie and it is dead!”

White House officials know that the messaging around the bill has been flawed and that the responsibility lies on both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue, a senior administration official said. The House and White House have had trouble getting their talking points in line, and they have faced criticism that could have been avoided.

Democrats slammed House Republicans for voting without waiting for an estimate of the health care bill’s costs and effects on insurance coverage. The Congressional Budget Office had previously said a different version of the legislation would reduce the deficit but lead to millions fewer people having insurance over a decade.

House Speaker Paul Ryan’s spokeswoman AshLee Strong declared on Twitter on Saturday that AHCA had been scored twice by the nonpartisan CBO, ignoring the fact that the version the House passed was never assessed. The White House, meanwhile, said there was no point scoring the bill at all.

“Look, I think even if they were to score it, it’s impossible to score a lot of the things that would go into this because it has so many different factors that you simply can’t predict what governors may do in their states, specific conditions that patients may have,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, said Thursday. “So even if it was to be scored, I think it would be impossible to predict how that might actually affect and impact.”

And even as senators have been pressing the brakes, some in the White House were urging fast action.

"Everyone is excited, and excited to go to work and take the time necessary to look at the bill, make improvements where they need to be made,” Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, told "Fox News Sunday." "I think that everyone is committed to getting this thing done and getting it done as soon as possible.”

The health care victory lap also will be hard to sustain given the headlines about Russia’s interference in the presidential election and possible contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russian operatives. At the same time that the latest Flynn news was emerging on Friday night, news broke that a hacking operation linked to Russia had targeted moderate French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron, an attack similar to the sustained campaign against Hillary Clinton. Macron was elected president nonetheless on Sunday.

With Yates and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper appearing before senators Monday, the White House is bracing for new questions about its least favorite story.

Senators on Sunday were already being pressed on the Russia issue.

“What was particularly wrong was Gen. Flynn not being truthful about the substance of what he said,” Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), a member of the intelligence committee, told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He said Trump’s transition team was apparently concerned about that too, “and it appears they should have been.”

“But there are so many questions here as to who knew what when, what was done with this,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told the program.

Trump was already trying to get ahead of the narrative on Sunday, writing on Twitter that Democrats should face questions over their own interactions with Russia. Trump has repeatedly pointed to reports that the Democratic National Committee worked with a private investigation company after it was hacked rather than allowing the Federal Bureau of Investigation to examine its servers directly.

“When will the Fake Media ask about the Dems dealings with Russia & why the DNC wouldn't allow the FBI to check their server or investigate?” Trump wrote Sunday.



[POLITICO]