Although President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan may be on the same page when it comes to disliking the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, that hasn't stopped things from becoming awkward between the two — although Ryan still insists everything is copacetic.
It started on Saturday when Trump tweeted to his supporters that they should check out an upcoming episode of "Justice with Judge Jeanine."
During the episode's opening segment, Pirro called for Speaker Ryan to step down due to his recent failure to successfully push through a repeal-and-replace Obamacare bill.
"Paul Ryan needs to step down as speaker of the House. The reason? He failed to deliver the votes on his health care bill," Pirro declared.
She added, "Speaker Ryan, you come in with all your swagger and experience and you sell ’em a bill of goods, which ends up a complete and total failure, and you allow our president in his first 100 days to come out of the box like that, based on what?"
Despite what must have seemed like an indirect swipe, many reporters tweeted on Sunday that the House speaker and the president still were on good terms after Ryan's office sent out a statement, according to Mediaite.
According to a tweet by The New York Times' Maggie Haberman, "the two spoke again today and the president was clear his tweet had nothing to do with the speaker."
By contrast, Republican Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina — the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus that helped torpedo the American Health Care Act — was met with a warm reception when he returned to his congressional district after the bill's failure.
Ralph Slaughter, chairman of the Republican Party in North Carolina's Jackson County, told Politico, "They will come up with a plan that will make health care better for all Americans. The Freedom Caucus people are one of the reasons that Donald Trump is president of the United States right now. He is indebted to these people."
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