On Tuesday, the hosts and correspondents of NBC’s Today could not contain their excitement as they gloated over the failure of the Republican Senate health care bill. “For seven years Republican lawmakers have vowed to overturn ObamaCare, but this morning their latest plan has come to a screeching halt,” proclaimed fill-in co-host Willie Geist.
In the report that followed, correspondent Kristen Welker further hyped the news: “This is a devastating blow to one of the President’s top agenda items and biggest campaign promises – to repeal and replace ObamaCare.” “Now, the White House was caught by surprise after a frenzied push to lock in the votes for the GOP Senate bill,” she added.
The headline on screen throughout the segment blared: “GOP ‘Repeal and Replace’ Bill Collapses; Party Division Leads to Stinging Defeat for President.”
Noting the President calling for a straight repeal of ObamaCare, Welker warned: “For now the bill is dead on arrival and the new plan is controversial. Repeal now and replace later, much later.” She concluded: “Republicans privately acknowledge even securing the votes for their fallback plan will be difficult.”
In a discussion following the report, fellow correspondent Kasie Hunt scolded Republicans:
This is really the difference between being a party that’s opposing a president, Barack Obama, in Congress, and having to be the party that governs....And frankly, the repeal-only push came out of a party that was trying to oppose instead of one that was trying to write laws. So I think this is still a very tricky political calculation, trying to only repeal it.
Geist breathlessly asked: “How shaken is the White House by this development last night?” Welker replied: “Oh, they are shaken and they know this is a risky strategy.”
Arguing that Democrats were supposedly politically immune from the failures of ObamaCare, she declared:
Look, the Republican plan now is to force Democrats back to the table to negotiate over a new health care plan by repealing it. The thinking is that Democrats will feel political pressure to try to make sure people don’t lose their health care all together. But the reality is there’s no indication Democrats will play ball with them.
The reporter then dutifully quoted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to bolster her liberal talking points: “In a statement he said overnight, ‘Rather than repeating the same failed partisan process yet again, Republicans should start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets, and improves our health care system.’”
“Now, of course, this all underscores the political risk for Republicans. If they can’t get Democrats on board with their new plan, the GOP could really pay for this in the midterm elections by losing seats,” she predicted.
Hunt touted how Democrats would be happy to do nothing:
I think if there is a very visible failure, if Republicans fail to push forward a plan, then you may see a situation where Democrats work with them to try to make basically a smaller fix to those individual ObamaCare markets....But I think we are still a ways away from that if you still see President Trump looking for a victory. I do not think there’s any way Democrats will try to help him out with that.
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Here is a full transcript of the July 18 panel discussion:
7:04 AM ET
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: I want to keep this conversation going but bring in NBC’s Kasie Hunt, who covers Capitol Hill for us. And Kasie, to you, let’s pick up right where Kristen [Welker] left off, are there the votes for this “repeal now, replace later” idea? And is there any reason to think this gets easier with time?
KASIE HUNT: I'm not sure that there’s a reason to think it does get easier with time. The reality here is they set out down this repeal and replace plan originally because leadership knew that they didn’t have support to just do a straight repeal. This is really the difference between being a party that’s opposing a president, Barack Obama, in Congress, and having to be the party that governs. And you’ve actually had some senators out at home at town hall meetings acknowledge that up front, say, “Hey, it’s a lot harder to govern than we thought.” And frankly, the repeal-only push came out of a party that was trying to oppose instead of one that was trying to write laws. So I think this is still a very tricky political calculation, trying to only repeal it.
WILLIE GEIST: Kristen, repeal and replace obviously was a core promise of the Trump campaign. Over the course of about two years now, we’ve been hearing it also from Republicans in the House and the Senate. Now yesterday, as you point out in your tweet, the President changing to, “Well, let’s at least repeal this thing and then we’ll work with Democrats to replace it later.” How shaken is the White House by this development last night?
KRISTEN WELKER: Oh, they are shaken and they know this is a risky strategy. Look, the Republican plan now is to force Democrats back to the table to negotiate over a new health care plan by repealing it. The thinking is that Democrats will feel political pressure to try to make sure people don’t lose their health care all together. But the reality is there’s no indication Democrats will play ball with them.
In fact, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer pushing Republicans to start negotiating now to improve ObamaCare. In a statement he said overnight, “Rather than repeating the same failed partisan process yet again, Republicans should start from scratch and work with Democrats on a bill that lowers premiums, provides long-term stability to the markets, and improves our health care system.”
Now, of course, this all underscores the political risk for Republicans. If they can’t get Democrats on board with their new plan, the GOP could really pay for this in the midterm elections by losing seats, Willie.
GUTHRIE: And let me take that hot potato and kick it back to Kasie on that. I mean, what do you hear on the Hill, would Democrats be willing to get together with Republicans and try to do something if it’s in the name of replacing ObamaCare?
HUNT: I think that if the frame on this is, “We have repealed President Obama’s health care law, we’re trying to replace it with something better,” I don’t know that Democrats are going to go for that. And look, the politics of health care have gotten so calcified, both sides are way down in their trenches, you right now have it set up as TrumpCare on the one hand versus ObamaCare on the other.
I think if there is a very visible failure, if Republicans fail to push forward a plan, then you may see a situation where Democrats work with them to try to make basically a smaller fix to those individual ObamaCare markets that we’ve talked so much about, the ones where many states only have one plan, for example. But I think we are still a ways away from that if you still see President Trump looking for a victory. I do not think there’s any way Democrats will try to help him out with that.
GUTHRIE: Alright, our team on Capitol Hill and at the White House on this breaking development. Ladies, thank you very much.
GEIST: Thanks guys.
