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Ryan Tells Trump Don't Have The Votes For Health Care Bill; Canceled Open Intel Hearing Causes Partisan Rift; White House Briefing Starts. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired March 24, 2017 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: -- because of the fact that the ultimatum came from the White House last night. You got to pass this. You've got to vote for this or it's going to be on you if Obamacare remains the law of the land, or whether you want to take a step back, take a breath and figure out if there is another strategy here.

We don't know what the answer will be to that question. But it is -- everybody is on pins and needles waiting for the speaker to get back to figure out what exactly they're going to do. Do they go forward or do they pull this bill?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Dana, what are you hearing from lawmakers up on Capitol Hill?

BASH: Well, you know, the obvious is that nobody will say that the votes are there or even close to being there. I spoke to one member of the now famous House Freedom Caucus, a conservative, Trent Franks of Arizona, about where he is.

He called -- he's told me that he is undeclared, meaning he's close to deciding. He pretty much knows inside where he's going to go, but he hasn't said publicly because he's waiting to hear a couple of things from the White House.

Here's how he described the atmosphere.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: You and your fellow Freedom Caucus members, you think, have made this bill better for conservatives. But enough, do you think, that you and your fellow Freedom Caucus members will be able to vote yes?

FRANKS: Well, see, that's the big question. I'm convinced we've made it better. We want to make it even better. And it will just depend on whether or not those of us in our own hearts and conscious can -- where that line will be. And I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So, Wolf -- so, Wolf, that's the conservative side of the Republican equation. The bigger problem, at this hour, seems to be the moderate side. You have some pretty important moderates suddenly saying, you know what? I can't support this because of the changes you just heard Trent Franks describe, the conservatives got from the White House and from the Republican leadership.

One key example, one huge red flag, and, again, my colleague Phil Mattingly was reporting this earlier today. Congressman Frelinghuysen, not a household name at all. He is from the state of New Jersey. One of the more moderate Republicans.

Not just that he's the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, one of the most powerful members of the House Republican conference, gets a job like that because he's close to the leadership. He is breaking with the leadership, breaking with the president, saying he's going to vote no.

That is not a good sign. And kind of gives you a sense of why from the left of the caucus to the right of the caucus, they are still having big problems and the votes simply are not there. And we're waiting to see what that means for whether or not this bill even gets a vote.

BLITZER: We're also waiting for the start of the White House press briefing. You can see live pictures coming in. We'll hear from Sean Spicer, get the White House reaction to these very dramatic developments.

Dana, stand by, we're going to get back to you. The significance of what's happening up on Capitol Hill cannot be overstated.

Let's get some analysis, starting with Gloria Borger. If in fact the speaker is now telling the president the votes are not there, what do you want to do, there are few options, continue with the vote, try to see if you can eek something through, or cancel it, postpone it, once again, and not be humiliated if it goes down to defeat?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, and the president may have a different view from Paul Ryan. I mean, Paul Ryan may believe that if it's down a handful of votes and they can possibly get it, they ought to -- they ought to go for it.

And the president and his advisers, who delivered the ultimatum yesterday and said we're having this vote tomorrow no matter what, may feel differently. May feel, you know what? These guys don't want to do this, fine. They weren't in love with this bill in the first place. They know it's a huge loss. The president has, you know, mused about whether this was the right order do things. The knives are already out on both sides.

And they may decide that, you know, let's just -- let's just roll the dice. Politically, obviously, this would be a huge loss for him. Either way, though, if he lost on the floor or if he pulls the bill, I mean, there -- you know, none of these are good choices for the White House. None of them. ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And I think the president also

thinks that the loss is delayed for him more so than for Republicans on the Hill. I mean, they're facing, many of them, re-election in two years. And, virtually, in a year, they have to start facing constituents.

The president is looking at his own re-election, he's thinking four years out. And he's thinking, maybe if I can give my constituents something and tax reform is a little bit closer to a give me than health care, than he's better off.

So, it's hard. I think Paul Ryan definitely has to take seriously the possibility that Trump, as he's said many, many times over the last two weeks, did not want to do this first. He wanted to start with something that he felt was more central to his mission of getting jobs out there for his constituents, like tax reform, like infrastructure.

And so, there is a serious consideration that the president does not want to really deal with this, especially given how hard it's been.

[13:05:00] BLITZER: You know, David Chalian, it's a tough decision they're going to have to make in the next hour or two. To go ahead and let the vote take place, the roll call vote, 435 members, the House of Representatives. Or do you just say, you know what? We're going to postpone it one more time, give it some more time to see if they can make some changes to guarantee success.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, I'm not sure how that will guarantee success.

What I think is particularly troubling for the proponents of the bill, for Paul Ryan right now and for the White House, is this reporting coming out of this meeting. That Paul Ryan was going to deliver bad news. That the votes aren't there.

Because what happens now is that you can start to see -- you can see now after -- after that report was out there, we learned Barbara Comstock, from a very competitive Congressional district in Virginia, her spokesman declaring she's a no vote. We didn't know her declaration before.

We -- what happens is that members are going to start feeling if, indeed, they see these reports in these hours right now that this is blowing up, then it may not just be a handful of votes that they need to plug the dam, but, all of a sudden, a lot more votes start appearing in the no column and then Paul Ryan has a much bigger problem on his hands.

BORGER: A big loss. Not just a loss but a huge one.

BLITZER: And the fact that Barbara Comstock, from northern Virginia just outside of Washington D.C., she's now apparently a no. Congressman Frelinghuysen, the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, as we heard from Dana. That's a big deal. And you've covered Congress for a long time. SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "USA TODAY": So, this is -- must be a revelation, in some ways, to President Trump that Rodney Frelinghuysen, who I bet he couldn't pick up out, out of a lineup, could have such a big consequential voice when it comes to voting in Congress. Because the president has lots of power.

He doesn't have all the power. Every member of Congress has a vote and are concerned not just about President Trump, but about their own constituents and about their own political future.

You know, and one problem that I think President Trump will face is a loss here will affect his ability to get the tax bill he wants. A loss here will affect his approval rating. Everything is of a piece when you're president. And things are not compartmentalized in the way that they might be, say, in the business world.

BLITZER: You know, Gloria, we're waiting for Sean Spicer, the White House Press Secretary, to brief reporters. I assume he, himself, is getting briefed right now. But how does he deal with a sensitive issue like this? How does he walk that delicate line?

BORGER: Well, he told us, repeatedly, there is no plan B. Remember that. So, if that's true, what do they -- what do they do? I mean, you know, he said we're going to win. There is no plan B. And maybe he was right. Maybe they take it to a vote and there is no plan B. And I think that --

CHALIAN: Well, we got a clue as to what the plan B was from last night which is to move on.

BORGER: Right, to move on.

CHALIAN: And the presidency delivered that message when they delivered the ultimatum --

BORGER: Right.

CHALIAN: -- that we want this vote today. And this, of course, was their gambit, right? But they basically said, and if not, if you vote this down, we're going to move on and you're going to have to live with the fact that you voted to keep Obamacare in play.

BORGER: Right. And, by the way, we're going to take some names here.

CHALIAN: Exactly.

BORGER: And Donald Trump has a long memory and he's going to start taking some names of these members, perhaps it's the Freedom Caucus, perhaps it's the moderates, with whom one might think he might be aligned because he seemed to be -- he's not ideological.

I mean this is the thing that Donald Trump is up against right now. He's up against people with really, sort of, rigid sets of beliefs that they ran on. Donald Trump is a businessman who wants to make deals. And in making deals, you make compromises. And when you talk to the -- to the Freedom Caucus, and he's not happy to the Freedom Caucus, what he's learning is that they're ideologues. They believe in things, for many years, and that this is their moment to prove that actually they do have a set of beliefs.

And he's not used to it in business negotiations. It's about money. It's about cutting a deal so everyone can be happy and make -- you know, make a profit.

This is not what this is about. And I think it must be, sort of, eye- opening for him to understand that he cannot control this, to a certain -- to a certain degree. He exerts a lot of influence. But at a certain point, people are about their own survival.

PHILLIP: And it's not just ideology, it's also personal. I mean, health care is one of those monsters out of a political issue where it's both an ideological, you know, hill to die on for some folks. But it's also people who don't want go home and look their constituents in the eye and say, hey, you know, that maternity coverage is no longer in your plan because of something I did.

And so, this -- you know, Trump talks about the give and take on this health care bill is being all about politics. And it is not because it's also about people. And that's one of the reasons it's one of the hardest things that anybody of any party has to do.

BLITZER: Everybody stand by for a moment because the vote on the health care bill isn't the only drama playing out on Capitol Hill right now.

There is an internal battle, a significant battle, in the House Intelligence Committee over the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election here in the United States.

[13:10:07] It began today with a statement from President Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, saying this. This is a statement from his attorney. Mr. Manafort instructed his representatives to reach out to committee staff and offer to provide information, voluntarily, regarding recent allegations about Russian interference in the election.

As Mr. Manafort has always maintained, we look -- he looks forward to meeting with those conducting serious (ph) investigations of these issues to discuss the facts.

Soon after that, the House Intelligence Committee chairman and the panel's top Democrat appeared before the cameras separately. Listen.

They totally disagreed on the -- not necessarily the Manafort decision to come before the panel. They totally disagreed on the whole issue of having an open hearing on Monday before former intelligence leaders, during the Obama administration, who had been scheduled to testify, the chairman, Devin Nunes, announcing that that committee hearing on Monday has been canceled. And just a little while ago, another development. A former advisor to the candidate Donald Trump, Roger Stone, says he will voluntarily talk to the House committee himself preferably in public.

Our Senior Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju is up on Capitol Hill. He's following all these dramatic developments. Manu, now one more former adviser says he'll volunteer to speak publicly, answer questions before the committee. These are all dramatic developments. We'll get to that in a moment.

But this feud has really escalated today between the chairman and the ranking Democrat on his decision, the chairman's decision, to cancel that hearing on Monday.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's absolutely right. The question is how does this committee move forward, given that it seems to have broken down in partisan rancor.

But, Wolf, a piece of news just now. I've obtained a letter here from Carter Page, the top -- who is a foreign policy adviser in the early parts of the Trump campaign who says that he, too, is willing to come forward and testify to the House Intelligence Committee.

Now, he wants to, quote, "set the record straight" in a very strongly- worded letter to Devin Nunes and Adam Schiff, the top two members on the House Intelligence Committee. He says that the attacks against him are fueled by lies. He did not try to coordinate with the Russians during the campaign.

And says, quote, "I would eagerly welcome the chance to speak with the committee to help finally set the record straight following the false evidence, illegal activities as well as the other lies distributed by certain politically motivated suspects in coordination with the Obama administration which defamed me and other Americans.

Now, the question is, will he be public -- will he testify publicly or will Paul Manafort testify publicly and will Roger Stone testify publicly?

What we do know, wolf, is that one public hearing that was supposed to take place on Tuesday, with three former top-level intelligence and national security officials, was abruptly canceled by the chairman of the committee, Devin Nunes, earlier today who did not believe that this should go forward.

Instead, he wanted to have a private classified briefing with James Comey and Mike Rogers, the head of the National Security Agency.

Now, this did not go over well with Democrats who believe that Mr. Nunes was trying to squelch the efforts of the public to learn about what has happened between Russia and the Trump campaign.

And I asked Mr. Schiff, what do you think about Mr. Nunes' decision and can he continue to serve on the committee?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), RANKING MEMBER, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: To take evidence that may or may not be related to the investigation to the White House was wholly inappropriate. And, of course, cast grave doubts into the ability to run a credible investigation and the integrity of that investigation.

RAJU: Do you believe that he can still run this committee or should he step aside?

SCHIFF: You know, ultimately, that's a decision that the speaker needs to make. And I think the speaker has to decide, just as well as their own chairman, whether they want a credible investigation being done here, whether they want an investigation that the public can have confidence in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, of course, Wolf, this comes after that decision by Mr. Nunes to brief the president of the United States on information that he received, Mr. Nunes received, from a source showing that some sort -- some communications may have been picked up suggesting that Trump officials --

And, Wolf, back to you. It sounds like Sean Spicer is at the podium.

BLITZER: Yes. We're about to go to the Sean Spicer briefing. We'll get back to you.

SEAN SPICER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: -- of the presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. The last administration spent eight years delaying this enormous investment in American energy independence. President Trump is moving this project forward in just eight weeks.

[13:15:00] And just as he promised, it's an even better deal for the American people than before he took office. This project will directly generate an estimated 16,100 jobs, according to the State Department, all without spending a dime of taxpayer money.

In many ways, this project represented everything that was wrong with the infrastructure permitting of the United States. TransCanada spent an incredible amount of resources attempting to comply with government regulations, only to be denied and delayed for political reasons.

But the days of pointless government bureaucracy holding up progress and production have ended. By simply getting excessive, duplicative regulations out of the way, we can make infrastructure projects more attractive -- a more attractive prospect for private investors, and encourage even more projects like this one.

Immediately following the announcement by TransCanada, the president announced that Charter Communications has committed to investing $25 billion here in the United States, and hiring an additional 20,000 American workers over the next four years.

Charter Communications is truly an example of how American leadership can turn a downward entity into an amazing success.

Five years ago, Charter Communications was a struggling company that had slowly emerged from bankruptcy. Today, thanks to the hard work and great leadership of chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge, it is the fastest- growing television, internet and voice company in the nation.

And most importantly, as Charter grew, American jobs grew, as they brought back many jobs that had previously been shipped overseas. Today, Charter is also committed to completely ending its offshore call centers, basing 100 percent of them in the United States.

Together, the TransCanada and Charter Communications announcements demonstrate the new economic model or what the president calls, quote, "the American model." By slashing job-killing regulations and reducing government burdens and lowering taxes, we'll make it easier for all businesses to grow right here at home, generating jobs and boosting our economy by getting government out of the way.

Following these big announcements, the president had lunch with Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin. He was joined by Speaker Paul Ryan. I'll update you in a second on that.

Later in the afternoon, the president will host a Greek Independence Day celebration.

And as I mentioned yesterday, at 4 o'clock, he will meet with about two dozen Medal of Honor recipients to honor Medal of Honor Day, which is technically tomorrow. He's honored to be hosting these great men and women of our armed services, the greatest force for peace and justice the world has ever known.

And obviously, later today, the House will be voting on the American Health Care Act. The current vote is scheduled for 3:30. The president has been working the phones and having in-person meetings since the American Health Care Act was introduced. He's left everything on the field when it comes to this bill.

The president and congressional Republicans promised the American people that they would repeal and replace this broken system. Obamacare's Washington-driven, one-size-fits-all plan had seven years to prove its case, and look what it's left us with:

Skyrocketing premiums -- on average, premiums for Obamacare benchmark plans increased 25 percent in 2017;

Unaffordable deductibles -- the two most popular Obamacare health plans have average deductibles equivalent to 10 percent and 6 percent of the median American household income. With these high deductibles, many people have, technically, insurance but nothing that they can afford to use;

Fewer choices -- one in five Americans have only one insurer offering Obamacare through exchanges;

And, of course, higher taxes. Key conservative groups like the Tea Party Express and American Conservative Movement have added themselves to a long list of organizations expressing their support for the American Health Care Act, because they know it's our chance, after the American people have spent years suffering, to finally repeal and replace the nightmare of Obamacare.

The president looks forward to seeing the House Republicans join with these influential voices and vote in favor of the American Health Care Act.

The president, as I mentioned, had Speaker Ryan come up here and visit with him to update him on the bill. They are continuing to discuss the way forward on this. The speaker is updating him on these efforts.

As I mentioned to many of you, the president has been working throughout the week on this, calling early and starting early in the morning, and working until late at night, calling with members, visiting members. By our count, over 120 members have personally had a visit, call or meeting here at the White House in the past few days, which is an extraordinary feat.

The president and his team have committed everything they can to making this thing happen. And -- and the speaker is going to continue to update him on -- on the way forward.

Finally, a few administrative notes here at the end.

Yesterday senior-level United States and Israeli delegations concluded four days of intensive talks, with a particular focus on concrete, near-term measures to improve the overall climate in order to advance the prospects of a genuine and lasting peace between Israel and Palestine.

The United State delegation was led by Jason Greenblatt, special representative for international negotiation, and included representatives of the NSC and the Department of State.

A principal focus of their discussion was specific measures that could have a meaningful impact on the economic environment in the West Bank and Gaza, allowing the Palestinians to more fully realize their economic potential.

Two delegations also discussed Israeli settlement construction.

The fact that both governments dedicated such senior delegations for so many days reflects the close cooperation between these countries and the importance that both assign to this vital task.

Last night the president announced his intention to nominate several key addition -- additional people to the administration, including Althea Coetzee to be deputy administrator of the Small Business Administration. William Francis Hagerty IV to be ambassador to Japan, Robert Sumwalt III to be a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. And also this morning of note, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia upheld the president's revised executive order protecting the nation from forest terror -- foreign people who seek to do us harm into the United States.

We're pleased with this ruling, which found the plaintiffs had no likelihood of success on the merits of their claims.

As the court correctly noted in its opinion, the president's order falls well within his legal authority to protect the nation's security.

We're confident that the president's fully lawful and necessary action will ultimately be allowed to move forward through the rest of the system -- court system.

In terms of the schedule for this weekend, the president will spend a working weekend here in Washington, and we'll update you with further details regarding his schedule.

With that, get to your questions.

Steve (ph)?

QUESTION: Is it your understanding that you don't have the votes to pass the health care legislation? Is that the message that Speaker Ryan delivered today? And if so, what lessons do you draw from this process?

SPICER: Well, I think the speaker's currently having a conversation with some to talk about where -- where that vote count stands. He's working with the members -- you know, the president made a sell (ph), he had the Tuesday Group here, there was 17 members here, 16 walked out as a yes.

I think we've had, you know, a group of members that we've continued to have a conversation with and try to make -- frankly, at this point, it's not a question of negotiating anymore, it's -- it's understanding the greater good that's at hand.

The president understand this is it. We had this opportunity to -- to change the trajectory of health care, to help improve -- put a health are system in place and to end the nightmare that Republicans have campaigned on called Obamacare.

I noted yesterday was the seventh-year anniversary of Obamacare. We have an opportunity to make sure that was the last one, and the question is, do members realize this opportunity.

There's no question, in my mind at least, that the president and the team here have left everything on the field. We have called every member that had a question or a concern, tried to, to the extent possible, take into consideration ideas that would strengthen the bill. And it's now gonna be up to the members of the House to decide whether or not they want to follow through on the -- the promise of that. But we're going to continue to work with the speaker and the leadership there to see, you know, where the votes are. We're getting closer and closer, but you need to get to 216. And -- and, you know, they've started four hours of debate. I suspect a vote somewhere around the 3:30, 4 o'clock hour. Let's see where we go.

Hunter (ph)?

QUESTION: Thank you, Sean.

We're hearing that Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell wanted to do a clean repeal and then replace over time. In retrospect, would that have been a better approach? And, in general, do you think Paul Ryan has handled this well?

SPICER: I don't -- I don't know that that's entirely the case. I know that this was a -- a joint effort. This is something that the House determined in terms of the three-prong approach that we had.

So I don't -- I don't know that I necessarily agree with the assessment of how that -- that happened.

QUESTION: And in general, is the White House happy with how Paul Ryan has handled this?

SPICER: I think the speaker has done everything he can. He's worked really closely with -- with the president. I think, at the end of the day, you -- you know, I said this yesterday, you can't force people to vote. But I think we've given them every single reason to fulfill every pledge that they've made, and -- and I think this is the right thing to do.

Maggie (ph)? I don't want you to live tweet this thing (ph), so...

QUESTION: Thank you. Thank you, Sean.

SPICER: Yeah.

QUESTION: What is the White House's view, if this is not passed; there aren't the votes? What does this mean going forward for everything in (ph) the president's agenda, tax reform being the big one?

SPICER: Yeah.

Look, I -- I -- I don't -- I've said it before, I don't think you can -- you tie any of these together.

That's just not -- I think there's a huge appetite for tax -- tax reform -- and I'm not trying to juxtapose anything to do with today's vote or not -- I think it would be great to see it put forward. The president's put a lot of time and effort into this and I think he's made a strong case.

As to why this has to happen, I think we worked with the House -- if we don't get -- regardless of what happens today -- and I still feel optimistic -- that, you know, the speaker and the president and the vice president, they've got a team that's been up on the Hill most of the day. They're going to continue to try to get every vote they can.

But that doesn't mean -- whether it's immigration or tax reform, there's still a huge appetite out there.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) If this fails today, is the president done with...

SPICER: So negative.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

SPICER: That's what you're hearing? Well, I -- I haven't heard that yet, so why don't we continue with a very positive, optimistic Friday? The sun's coming out.

(LAUGHTER)

I feel really good, you know.

So, we're going to continue to work as late as we can to get the votes. And -- and I've said, the upside is that, you know, we continue to pick up votes. People continue to -- to say they want to (inaudible), the question is, can we get to 216?

But make no mistake about it, I mean, the president made it clear last night, this is it. You know, you have an opportunity to do what you've told the American people, the commitment that we as a party have made. But this is your chance to do what we've done.

We've listened, we've incorporated, we've updated in every way possible. I don't think -- when you look at legislative efforts, I think the president has given it his all. And I think it shocked a lot of people, frankly, how very, very detail-oriented, how personal it was for him, calling members, you know, as early as 6 in the morning and going to 11:00 at night the last several nights, sitting down meeting after meeting with them, coming back and revising it, having his team back and forth.

Everything's out there. And I think each of these members needs to make that decision whether or not they believe that they've, you know -- at some point, you can only do so much is what I would honestly tell you. And I think everything that we can possibly do to listen to members, to get their concerns in this -- in this piece of legislation to make it as strong as possible for the American people has been done.

QUESTION: But is the president comfortable then with Obamacare continuing? And what...

SPICER: No, he's not. I mean, of course he's not.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) promise that he would repeal it?

SPICER: I mean, I'm not even sure where to start with that.

No, he's not, which is why he's literally put as much effort as he has into repealing this.

And -- and so -- but he's made it clear that this is our moment, this is our opportunity to do it. But it is now up to members to make that decision whether or not they want to be part of this effort to repeal Obamacare.

And if they don't -- and I think for a lot of us -- you know, you saw the president's tweet this morning. I think for a lot of these members who -- life is an important issue as well, this is your opportunity.

But it's ultimately them that have to go down on the floor and cast that vote. And I think that, you know, we've been able to cast a bunch of votes over the past couple of years when you knew a president wouldn't sign it. You now have a president that's going to sign the bill if you pass it, and now is that time.

Zeke (ph)?

QUESTION: Thanks, Sean.

(inaudible) the entire campaign, his message to his voters, the American people, was he's a businessman, he knows how to get deals done, he knows how to break the gridlock in Washington, he knows how to -- he's the closer is what you said earlier this week.

If this vote does go down, what does it say about the president? Is the president humbled by this process? And is he -- you know, will he readjust his...

(CROSSTALK)

SPICER: Let -- let -- let's not -- look, you know, I'm not -- like I said to (inaudible), I'm still optimistic. I feel like we're continuing to work hard.

But, you know, at the end of the day, you can't force somebody do something. I think there's nobody that objectively can look at this effort and say the president didn't do every single thing he possibly could with his team to get every vote possible. And I think that's why, you know, I still feel good about this.

But, you know, we are who we are, and members have got to make that decision for themselves. This is the final hour to make that decision.

Blake (ph)?

QUESTION: Sean, is it under any consideration to pull the bill at all between now and then?

SPICER: You guys are so negative.

QUESTION: Well, there are reports out there...

(CROSSTALK) SPICER: I understand, but -- but there are reports out there, let's -- the speaker and the president are talking now. The leader and the whip are, you know, doing their vote counts. The debate is ongoing. You know, we're going to continue -- we are proceeding with a 3:30 vote as scheduled.

John (ph)?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE), if you don't mind, the thinking last -- yesterday when the bill was pulled and then the president had made the decision -- or his team, they went to the Hill saying, "There's going be a vote today." At what point did he make that calculation? Why did he make that calculation? Can you bring us through some of that?

SPICER: Yeah.

I mean, well, there's a couple things.

One is, I think we wanted to be as open as possible with the vote. Having it on the current trajectory last night, it was going into the wee hours of the morning and I don't think that that -- for all that we've talked about, that wasn't the appropriate way to vote. I think we decided to work with the House and ask that they postpone and -- and make sure that it was done in the light of day.

SPICER: But I think that he'd had enough discussions.

[13:30:00]