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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump insists he's said all along that Congress should let the Affordable Care Act "implode," then replace it.
Not true.
He campaigned on repealing and replacing "Obamacare" at the very beginning of his presidency.
Dial back to a Trump tweet from the campaign, Feb. 9, 2016: "We will immediately repeal and replace ObamaCare — and nobody can do that like me. We will save $'s and have much better healthcare!" He said repeatedly through the campaign that it would be "so easy."
He didn't get Congress to repeal it and replace it immediately, or at all as of yet. On Thursday night, as the Republican plan to rewrite the law cruised toward doom in the Senate, Trump tweeted:
"Go Republican Senators, Go! Get there after waiting for 7 years. Give America great healthcare!"
But with three Republicans voting against the measure — Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and John McCain of Arizona — the bill went down in suspenseful defeat.
Groused Trump on Twitter in the early hours of Friday:
"3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down. As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!"
Later in the day, he stuck with that line in a speech in Brentwood, New York, "I said from the beginning: Let Obamacare implode and then do it."
He didn't say it from the beginning, whenever that was.
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Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd
EDITOR'S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures
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