Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro, whose show President Trump urged his followers on Twitter to watch earlier in the day, opened her program on Saturday evening by calling on Speaker Paul Ryan to step down. "Ryan needs to step down as Speaker of the House," Pirro said in her opening statement. “The reason? He failed to deliver the votes on his health care bill.”
'Paul Ryan must go'
Pirro said she has “not spoken with the president about any of this,” and that Trump is handling the defeat “with dignity.” Trump continued that approach with a tweet on the 26th of March, 2017, condemning both Democrats and conservative GOP groups for the Trump care defeat.
"No one expected a businessman to completely understand the nuances, the complicated ins, and outs of Washington and its legislative process," Pirro said in her statement.
It was not clear immediately what was behind the president's promotion. In public statements since the bill’s collapse, both Trump and Vice President Pence have continued to support Ryan as speaker. The White House did not respond to any questions on Saturday night about whether Trump knew what Jeanine was going to say.
Watch @JudgeJeanine on @FoxNews tonight at 9:00 P.M.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 25 March 2017
The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman reported Sunday afternoon that a spokesperson for Ryan said that Trump assured the speaker that his tweet was unrelated to Pirro’s commentary.
Ryan spox re Judge Jeanine: "The two spoke again today and the president was clear his tweet had nothing to do with the speaker."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) 26 March 2017
Jeanine blames Paul Ryan
Describing the bill as a “total and complete failure,” Judge Jeanine blamed Ryan for pushing health care reform too early in the president’s term.
According to Judge Jeanine, Ryan should have known that it was not the right time, and Trump was not blamed for misjudging because he was “a complete outsider.”
Social media quickly exploded with accusations that Trump was informed of the content of Pirro’s show ahead of time. When reached for comment, Fox News pointed to Pirro’s comments on her program about not speaking with the president, as well as a later interview with Reince Priebus.
Aides close to Ryan told NBC News later that Ryan and the president spoke again on Sunday. "The president was clear that his tweet had nothing to do with the speaker," the aides said. "They are both eager to get back to work on the agenda."
