Trump aide fires back at McConnell: ‘More excuses’

A White House aide on Wednesday fired back at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell after the Kentucky Republican expressed frustration with President Trump’s “excessive expectations.”

“More excuses,” White House social media director Dan Scavino tweeted, adding McConnell “must have needed another 4 years – in addition to the 7 years — to repeal and replace Obamacare…..”

More excuses. @SenateMajLdr must have needed another 4 years – in addition to the 7 years — to repeal and replace Obamacare….. https://t.co/6FOVBm6BQU

— Dan Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) August 9, 2017

{mosads}

The White House aide was responding to comments from McConnell earlier this week when he criticized Trump’s “artificial deadlines” following the collapse of Senate healthcare reform efforts.

“Now our new president has of course not been in this line of work before. And I think had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process,” McConnell said.

“And so, part of the reason I think people feel like we’re underperforming is because too many artificial deadlines unrelated to the reality and the complexity of legislature may not have been fully understood,” he added.

Last month, Republicans’ efforts to repeal and replace ObamaCare collapsed in the Senate, with a scaled-down repeal measure failing after three GOP senators broke from the party and voted no.

Trump then took to Twitter to criticize McConnell and call for the Senate to change its rules, allowing bills to pass with a 51-vote majority without risk of a Democratic filibuster.

Still, the so-called “skinny” ObamaCare repeal bill only needed 50 votes to pass, with Vice President Pence on hand to cast a tie-breaking vote, but it failed to secure support from 50 of 52 GOP senators.

Some lawmakers have urged the GOP not to move on from healthcare, while others have argued Republicans should focus on other agenda items such as tax reform.