After AHCA failure, Donald Trump and House Republicans hatch plan to oust Speaker Paul Ryan
Donald Trump and the Republican Party officially abandoned their own American Health Care Act today, not even bothering to bring it to a vote, as support for it failed to materialize within their own party. This means ObamaCare will remain the law of the land. It also means someone on the Republican side has to take the fall for it. Accordingly, the Trump administration and House Republicans have confirmed that they’re now seeking to oust Speaker Paul Ryan.
Trump’s White House and the House Republicans have both leaked this confirmation to propaganda site Breitbart this evening. In general, claims made by Breitbart can’t be treated as if they’re coming from a legitimate news outlet. However, the site can be viewed as a mouthpiece for Trump and the extremist wing of the GOP. So these leaks do tell us with a good degree of certainly that they truly are aligning to oust Ryan tonight.
It’s less clear who the new Speaker would be. When previous Speaker John Boehner abruptly quit out of frustration in 2015, the Republican Party had a difficult time finding a replacement who could garner the votes of the establishment and traditional wings of the party. Paul Ryan ended up being a compromise whom no one involved was enthusiastic about.
With the Trump White House leading the effort to oust Ryan, it’s a given that it’s seeking to replace him with one of its own allies. But with Donald Trump’s approval rating in the toilet and his Russia scandal increasingly threatening to swallow his administration, he may lack the political muscle to force the more traditional wing of the House GOP to accept one of his extremist allies. Nonetheless, Trump and the GOP have used their mouthpiece Breitbart (link) to telegraph that they are in fact pursuing Paul Ryan’s ouster tonight.
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