MILWAUKEE _ Conservative media outlets friendly to President Donald Trump are blaming last week's collapse of the major GOP health care bill on House Speaker Paul Ryan.
But a top aide to the Wisconsin Republican said Monday that the relationship between the speaker and president "is stronger than ever right now."
Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, a longtime friend of Trump, railed against Ryan this weekend and called for his immediate resignation as speaker.
"Paul Ryan needs to step down as speaker of the House," Pirro said Saturday at the beginning of her show. "The reason? He failed to deliver the votes on his health care bill. The one trumpeted to repeal and replace Obamacare. The one that he had seven years to work on. The one he hid under lock and key in the basement of Congress. The one that had to be pulled to prevent the embarrassment of not having enough votes to pass."
Her comments came the same day that Trump took to Twitter to urge people to watch her show, although White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told Fox News that the tweet and Pirro's call for Ryan to step down was "more coincidental."
Ryan spokesman Ian Martorana echoed Priebus' comments and said the two men are eager to continue working together.
"The speaker and president talked for an hour Saturday about moving forward on the agenda and their relationship is stronger than ever right now. The two spoke again Sunday and the president was clear his tweet had nothing to do with the speaker," Martorana said in an email. "They are both eager to get back to work on the agenda."
Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy, another key friend and ally of Trump, has also targeted Ryan _ and distanced the president from the bill's failure _ with a piece, "Trump Still the Winner After Ryan Plan Fails."
"The House speaker failed to do any of the basic spadework necessary to get such important legislation passed," Ruddy wrote Sunday, calling the proposal "a damaged bill of goods."
Ruddy added that Trump won in part "because the Ryan plan was flawed and would have been catastrophic for Republicans in the 2018 and 2020 elections."
Even before the bill's failure, the conservative Breitbart News Network website was targeting Ryan. Early this month, Breitbart leaked audio of the speaker criticizing Trump in October. The website explicitly linked the audio release to the health care bill, saying criticism of the legislation "calls into question whether Speaker Ryan ... really understands how Trump won and how to win in general."
Breitbart's former executive chairman, Steve Bannon, is now Trump's chief strategist.
In the wake of the bill's collapse, Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have continued to support Ryan.
Pirro was much less gracious.
"Speaker Ryan, you come in, with all your swagger and experience, and you sell him 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?" she said. "Based on what? Your legislative expertise? Your knowledge of the arcane ins-and-outs of the bill-writing process? Your relationships? What? Your drinks at the Hay-Adams with your pals?"
Priebus, a longtime friend of Ryan who spent much of his childhood in Kenosha, distanced the White House from the Fox host's comments.
"I did not talk to the president about the tweet," Priebus told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday". "I'm just telling the truth. There is no preplanning here."
Priebus insisted that Trump does not want Ryan to step down as speaker, adding that the president thinks Ryan "worked really hard" and is not responsible for the bill's collapse.
Citing unidentified sources, The New York Times reported this weekend that blame has fallen increasingly on Priebus, who coordinated initial strategy on the overhaul bill with Ryan.
It wasn't just conservatives blaming Ryan for the bill's collapse.
"Paul Ryan has said that we needed to get rid of the Affordable Care Act for seven years. And when push came to shove, he didn't have a plan," said Scot Ross, executive director of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now. "I think most important is in Speaker Ryan's first test he did worse than fail. He may have been kicked out of school."
Ross said Ryan pushed a plan that would lead to 24 million people losing their care, a reference to an analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office that said the bill would lead to 14 million fewer Americans with health insurance by 2018 and 24 million fewer by 2026.
He added that Ryan "is not the policy genius that his press folks have led us to believe," and that it was a bad idea to choose somebody without government experience, like Priebus, to be chief of staff.
Priebus has also faced some conservative criticism and calls to resign, but said on "Fox News Sunday" that he's "not in any trouble."
Ross criticized not only Ryan and Priebus but also Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who called for the bill's passage last week.
"Between those two and Walker's spectacular flameout as a presidential candidate, good Lord, the people of America may find out that the Republicans of Wisconsin are actually completely incompetent," Ross said.
