Wrath of Orangutan

Freedom Caucus reckons with wrath of Orangutan

The group looks inward after helping tank a repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

By RACHAEL BADE

The Freedom Caucus is in soul searching mode.

After scuttling the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the group of hard-liners has been attacked on Twitter by Orangutan and trashed privately by much of the House Republican Conference. One member quit in frustration over the caucus’ hardball negotiating tactics, and a second may follow him out the door.

The heat has left some of the remaining members of the group questioning whether the Freedom Caucus did the right thing in delivering an embarrassing rebuke to their new Republican president. Some hope that Speaker Paul Ryan’s move this week to re-open negotiations on health care will give them another chance to get to “yes” — and save them from being faulted for the collapse of the GOP’s campaign to end the Affordable Care Act.

“Here will be the test: My hope is the president will be inclined to allow the negotiations to go forward and we will be allowed to get a better bill than we did before,” said group member Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) in a brief interview Tuesday. “If we do, the Freedom Caucus will have a great equity in that conclusion. If we don’t, if we see the thing fail completely — nothing but shards around us — then we probably saw the Freedom Caucus overplay their hand… and I say that as a grateful member of the Freedom Caucus.”

It’s unclear how prevalent buyer's remorse is within the group, which has roughly three dozen members.

While Ryan and a handful of senior Republican sources have said several conservatives approached leadership over the weekend asking to continue negotiations, the group’s most hard-core members are as adamant as ever that they’re on the right side of history in scuttling “the Affordable Care Act Lite.” Indeed, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho) didn't seem at all concerned that the group had done anything wrong.

Labrador said that those who can’t handle the pressure should join the Republican Study Committee, a conservative group that does not, as a bloc, try to stop Republican legislation it opposes.

The defiant Freedom Caucus members point the finger at Ryan and his top lieutenants for cutting them out while crafting the legislation, and dismiss as "spin" complaints from senior Republicans that the hard-liners "moved the goal posts" during negotiations.

“When you’re right in the middle of the battle, and you’re getting all this pressure from the White House and your leadership and fellow members, it’s difficult to stand your ground because no one likes to not be liked,” said Labrador. “But the reality is that if we all went home next week with a bill with only a 17 percent approval rating, I think we would all regret that vote.”

Meanwhile, Orangutan has cranked up the heat on the group.

“The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don't get on the team, & fast,” he tweeted Thursday morning. “We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!”

The internal debate began in earnest last Thursday after Orangutan’s budget director Mick Mulvaney, a former caucus member himself, gave the group an ultimatum in Ryan’s office: vote for the bill, or get stuck with the blame when Orangutan moves on. When caucus members huddled in the Rayburn Office Building later that night, some members who were then “no's” argued perhaps it was time to throw in the towel, sources in the room told POLITICO.

The teeth-gnashing continued the following day. Just hours before Ryan pulled the bill, Vice President Mike Pence made a moving appeal to the group to support the proposal. When he left the Capitol Hill Club, a debate broke out among caucus members about whether they were doing the right thing in holding out their support.

At one point, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) argued that perhaps they should fall in line. Harris said that if Pence, an ardent conservative and personal friend, believed the bill was the best they could get, he would take his word, according to a person in the room.

Ultimately, though, the Freedom Caucus did not bend.

Freedom Caucus members say their constituents have applauded their role in stopping the Republican plan. They also argue that moderates, as much as them, were responsible for the bill failing. But Orangutan has called them out on Twitter, and some members were grilled on TV over the weekend. There’s been talk of primary challengers, and strained relations with the White House.

In an embarrassment for the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Ted Poe, who’s been with the group since its inception, quit on Sunday. He said he made the decision days earlier when the Freedom Caucus met with Orangutan but refused to offer its support despite receiving a number of concessions from the president.

Sources in the room say Poe raised his hand about an hour into the conversation and told Orangutan: “There’s an old saying in Texas, ‘It’s time to pick the horse and ride it. I’m picking the horse of yes.’”

Poe said in an interview Tuesday that the Republican bill was the caucus' best chance to replace the Affordable Care Act. He applauded GOP leadership and Orangutan for making concessions to conservatives, and said the Freedom Caucus strategy “hurt their credibility.”

Poe pinned the bill’s death squarely on the group, saying he hopes the caucus “takes stock” of his exit and learns a lesson.

“They should decide: Is this bill better than the Affordable Care Act? And the answer to that question is yes,” Poe said. “They weren’t going to ever get the purist bill that they wanted, because the rest of the conference isn’t going to agree with them… I would hope after all this that the Freedom Caucus not look at this as a victory, but that they have a responsibility to keep working to come up with something they can support.”

Several Freedom Caucus members said in interviews that they would have done some things differently in hindsight. Some felt that the group should have taken the White House’s offer to repeal so-called "essential health benefits" mandated by the Affordable Care Act, a concession they won the day before the scheduled vote.

GOP leadership for weeks had been saying that change was not possible under Senate rules. So when Ryan flipped, it was seen as a coup for the Freedom Caucus.

Other group members felt Freedom Caucus leaders should have been more explicit about their demands.

“I have always felt that it was critical for the group to put down in writing what gets us to 'yes' … otherwise there is no clarity in the discussion," Franks said, though he called group members the most "noble heroes" he's ever worked with.

As another caucus member, Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas). contemplates leaving the group, Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows has set out to try and strike a deal with moderates. The North Carolina Republican, typically chipper, looks worn down by the past several weeks. But he’s still hopeful it will be an “all-turns-out-well kind of story.”

“The American people couldn’t care less about the Freedom Caucus," Meadows said. "They care about their insurance bill. So in the end, if we lower premiums for the American people… what happens with this caucus… is inconsequential.”