President Donald Trump lashed out at Republican leadersand groups on Sunday for the defeat of the bill to repeal and replace hispredecessor’s health-care law, after blaming Democrats for the losson Friday.

In a Twitter posting to his 27 million followers, Trumpcriticized the House Freedom Caucus, the conservative HeritageFoundation and the free-market advocacy group Club for Growth,which opposed the bill for not going far enough to erase Obamacare,the system implemented by Democrats under President BarackObama.

“Democrats are smiling in D.C. that the Freedom Caucus, with thehelp of Club for Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood& Ocare!” Trump said.

The criticism marked a shift for Trump, who had avoided blamingRepublicans and House Speaker Paul Ryan for the defeat of the bill with noDemocratic support. House leaders abruptly scrapped a planned voteon repeal Friday because not enough support materialized, largelydue to the Freedom Caucus, made up of Congress’s most rebelliousconservative members.

In what seemed at least initially to be another shot at a fellowRepublican, Trump posted a Twitter message on Saturday urging hisfollowers to watch Jeanine Pirro on Fox News on Saturday night. Sheopened her show by calling on Ryan to resign because “he failed todeliver the votes on his health-care bill.”

Job safe

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said on “Fox NewsSunday” that it was "coincidental” that Trump promoted Pirro’s showon a day she wound up calling for Ryan’s resignation. He said thepresident’s tweet promoting the show was just a favor toPirro, who was a Republican political figure in New Yorkbefore becoming host of "Justice with Judge Jeanine" on FoxNews.

Priebus said Trump doesn’t blame Ryan for the defeat or want himto step down. Priebus also said his own job is not in jeopardy.

Defending Trump’s criticism of Republicans, Priebus said leaders“can’t be chasing the perfect all the time" and sometimes should"take the good and put it in your pocket and take the win." He saidTrump is willing to give Republicans who opposed the health-carebill another chance and thinks it’s time for Republicans to cometogether and potentially get a few moderate Democrats to jointhem.

Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich, speaking on CNN’s "Stateof the Union," also urged his party to seek help from across theaisle.

"You cannot have major changes in major programs such as healthcare without including Democrats from the very beginning and askingthem to be constructive," Kasich said.

No repeal

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Trump never reachedout to Democrats on health care and that they’ll only work withRepublicans on a bill that doesn’t repeal Obamacare. He said it was“petulance” for Trump to say he’s willing to let Obamacare“explode.”

“We always said we’d work with them to improve it,” Schumer saidon ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “We just said repeal was off thetable.”

White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said on NBC’s “Meetthe Press” on Sunday that it’s not possible to fix a broken systemand that Trump will return to health care when Obamacare “breaks.”He said there’s “probably plenty of blame to go around” for thefailure of the bill and that “Washington was a lot more broken thanPresident Trump thought that it was.”

Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas said problems with thebill -- and the rush to pass it -- were to blame, not conservativeRepublicans.

"To release a bill that was written in secret and then expect topass it in 18 days I just don’t think was feasible,” Cotton said on“Face the Nation” on CBS.

While Trump has said he’s ready to move on to a tax bill,Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina, chairman of theHouse Freedom Caucus, said he is not giving up on a health-carebill and has been seeking ways to compromise during the pastseveral days.

“To put a stake in it today would not be accurate, and nor wouldit be the narrative that this is a great failure for thepresident,” Meadows said on ABC.

Meadows also said there are no conversations happening aboutreplacing Ryan as speaker. He said he’s willing to work with Trumpon a tax bill and doesn’t think reductions have to be fully offsetwith spending cuts.

Copyright 2018 Bloomberg. All rightsreserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten,or redistributed.