Rep. Smith blames 'Never Trumpers' for failure on health bill; calls leaks 'unacceptable'

The “Never Trumpers” among Republican senators are a major reason the U.S. Senate failed to pass a health-care bill, U.S. Rep. Jason Smith said Monday.

The 8th District congressman also commented about the leaking of information in Washington, D.C.

Leaks of classified information are “unacceptable,” and leakers should be prosecuted, he said during a visit to Cape Girardeau.

The congressman said some Republicans in the Senate never have been on the side of President Donald Trump.

Four Republican senators ran against Donald Trump in the GOP primaries in 2016, Smith said.

“Look at the list of everyone who unendorsed the president (Trump) three weeks before his election. In my opinion, those (Never Trumpers) are a lot of the holdup in the United States Senate,” he said aboard the Army Corps of Engineers’ Motor Vessel Mississippi docked at the Cape Girardeau riverfront.

“These people need to realize that it’s not about whether or not they like President Trump or not. It is about what’s right for the American people,” the Salem, Missouri, Republican said.

The senators, he said, “need to get their act together” and pass a bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act with a simple majority.

There are 52 Republican senators. With Vice President Mike Pence able to cast a tiebreaking vote, the Senate needs only 50 affirmative votes, Smith said.

But the Senate recently rejected a narrowly crafted health-care bill. All 48 members of the Democratic caucus joined with Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) to block the legislation.

Still, Smith said he remains optimistic “the Senate will continue to work on it.”

As for the leaks, Smith said that “clearly there’s a problem.”

He said, “If you look at the amount of leaks that have happened in the last six months, it is more than all the leaks in the last three years of the prior administration.”

Smith applauded the efforts of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions for “taking an aggressive approach to go after these leaks because you are talking about some national-security issues that have been leaked.”

He decried recent leaks of the contents of conversations between Trump and other world leaders.

“A conversation of our president with any world leader should never be leaked,” he said.

Smith said leaks of national intelligence are crimes.

“The federal agencies need to identify who the leakers are and see that they are properly prosecuted,” Smith said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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