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Arizona's Freedom Caucus members shrug off Trump threat

March 30, 2017

Two of Arizona's four Freedom Caucus members shrugged off President Donald Trump's threat to the far-right lawmakers Thursday, showing no fear of facing challengers in their safely Republican districts.

Trump targeted the caucus that helped defeat his health-care plan in a tweet Thursday, saying, "The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don't get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!"

House Speaker Paul Ryan, who pulled the health-care bill rather than see it go down in defeat, sided with the president and acknowledged the GOP is adrift less than 100 days into Trump's administration.

"I understand the president's frustration," he said. "It's very understandable that the president is frustrated we're not going where he wants to go."

If the intent was to pressure the group of conservative House members, Rep. Trent Franks said it would not work.

"We've been guilt tripped by the best of them. We've been guilt tripped by guys half Mr. Trump's size," said Franks, who was undeclared on the health bill. "If somebody can get to the right of me in the primaries, God bless them."

Rep. Andy Biggs, who opposed Ryan's health-care measure in an effort to get a full repeal of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act, said, "I'm here to do a job and represent my constituents. I told them what I would do when I was campaigning. You can try to intimidate me all you want, but that's not really going to be efficacious."

Rep. Paul Gosar, another member of the Freedom Caucus and an opponent of the health-care bill, downplayed any rift with the White House, but didn't give ground on the health care issue.

"The Freedom Caucus has always stood with President Trump to accomplish our shared goals. We will continue to do that by ensuring any healthcare reform legislation lives up to the promises we made to the American people," he said in a statement.

Rep. David Schweikert, a Freedom Caucus member who supported the Ryan bill, could not be reached.

Agenda's future in question

The public intraparty rupture comes as Trump and Ryan are still smarting over the collapse of the health-care bill last week and must regroup to press ahead with other near-term priorities. Congress must take up raising the debt ceiling and passing a budget. It is also expected to tackle tax reforms and an infrastructure spending plan that are signature promises of the Trump administration.

Trump's broadside suggests the GOP wades into those efforts uneasy about the roughly three dozen members, including four from Arizona, who are part of the Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives.

MORE:2 AZ congressmen helped sink 'Obamacare' repeal

While those members share an especially conservative outlook, they didn't move in lockstep on health care. Biggs and Gosar opposed Ryan's American Health Care Act, which some conservatives derided as "Obamacare Lite." Franks was publicly undeclared on the bill and Schweikert supported it.

Throughout this week, Republicans maintained they intend to take another run at passing something to overturn the ACA, but there are few signs the party has bridged the gap between its more moderate members, some of whom also opposed the Ryan bill for different reasons, and the Freedom Caucus.

For her part, Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., who supported the Ryan bill and is not a member of the Freedom Caucus, said she continues to work on ways to build a bill that can pass the House.

"We still need a realistic path forward to replace the Affordable Care Act with a sustainable health care system that increases choice and quality, decreases cost, provides a stable transition and cares for the most vulnerable," she said in a statement. "I offered constructive improvements —totaling $165 billion — to the legislative efforts so far and will continue to listen to my constituents and be constructive going forward."

'Keep our promise'

Biggs said Republicans, including the Freedom Caucus, remain committed to their legislative agenda, which includes a repeal of the ACA and other issues, such as immigration and regulatory reforms.

"I think it's unfortunate that some people have been intemperate in their comments and attacked people personally because that's when you get into problems," he said. "That's when people get entrenched. Nobody likes to feel like they're getting pushed around."

RELATED:ACA repeal's collapse puts Freedom Caucus in tight spot

Franks also embraced the Freedom Caucus.

"I'm thankful to be a member of the Freedom Caucus; I think I could pick my pallbearers out of that group," Franks said.

"I've certainly have disagreed with some of the strategies that we've had going forward here and in the past, but the fact that remains is that the Freedom Caucus wanted but one thing and that is for us to keep our promise to repeal and replace Obamacare," he said, adding that Senate rules prevented the House from passing the kind of bill conservatives would have eagerly supported.

"I can understand (Trump's) frustration. Congress has failed him, not the other way around," Franks said. "As long as he will keep appointing Supreme Court justices and trying to head this country in the right direction, he's probably not going to have criticism."