Pelosi on health care fight: ‘Next 48 hours will be all hands on deck’

Dylan Stableford
·Senior Writer
Pelosi fields health care questions in Washington, D.C., earlier this month. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Pelosi fields health care questions in Washington, D.C., earlier this month. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday whom she considers the current leader of the Democratic Party. And Pelosi struggled to come up with one.

“Well, President Obama was the president of the United States until a matter of weeks ago. I don’t think he can be dismissed as the leader of the Democratic Party,” Pelosi said. “Hillary Clinton did not win the election but [is] a respected leader. But we have leaders for all different aspects of it. The Democratic Party is a congressional party, and we have leaders in Congress.”

That aspect is being tested this week, as Democrats dig in for the fight to save Obamacare and stop the Republican plan to repeal and replace it.

Pelosi is doing her part. She fired off a “battle plan” letter urging her Democratic colleagues to step up the pressure against the President Trump-backed health care alternative. The House vote on the bill — labeled “Trumpcare” by Democrats, “Ryancare” by Republican critics — is set for Thursday night.

“TrumpCare is a merciless assault on working families across America,” Pelosi wrote. “If Republicans get their way, children, seniors, Americans with disabilities and people struggling to overcome addiction will be pushed off their health coverage just to hand a massive new tax giveaway to billionaires.”

Both Trump and Republican leaders have been scrambling to drum up support for the bill ahead of the vote set for Thursday, exactly seven years after Obama signed his Affordable Care Act into law.

Related: Trump on the health care vote: ‘I hope that it’s going to all work out’

On Wednesday morning, Pelosi will hold a press conference on the House steps with former Vice President Joe Biden to mark Obamacare’s anniversary. Pelosi is also encouraging members to “tape live social media messages about the fight to defeat TrumpCare” in a “Facebook LIVE War Room” that will be held in her Capitol Hill office.

“The next 48 hours will be all hands on deck,” Pelosi continued. “Thursday’s vote will have life and death consequences for tens of millions of Americans. Our Caucus will be fully engaged in the fight to defeat Republicans’ monstrous bill.”

Pelosi added: “Thank you for your leadership.”

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