They persisted: Republican women keep Trump in check

The stunning collapse of President Donald Trump’s health reforms was due in large part to the defiance of two Republican women who resisted relentless White House pressure to toe the party line. While Senator John McCain’s revolt grabbed the headlines, the votes of the lesser-known Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski proved decisive in sinking Trump’s goal of repealing Obamacare. During his presidential run against Hillary Clinton, Trump faced flak over his behaviour and comments towards women. After Friday’s debacle, critics questioned Trump’s attempts to intimidate Collins and Murkowski, either via his top lieutenants or Twitter.

While several male Republican colleagues who voiced concerns about the direction of the repeal effort ultimately caved to Trump’s demands, it was Collins and Murkowski who stood firm.

A wavering McCain’s dramatic last-minute kibosh of the latest effort to repeal Obamacare would not have been possible without the persistence of the female senators from Maine and Alaska.

Each has faced aggressive arm-twisting and callouts by Trump, scare tactics from his cabinet, even threats of violence from a Republican congressman, Blake Farenthold, who said he would challenge “some female senators” to a duel if they were men rather than women, because they were blocking healthcare reform.

The mounting pressure against Collins and Murkowski served as a reminder of some of Trump’s controversies from his presidential campaign.

He smeared a female reporter who moderated his first debate, attacked Clinton as an “enabler” for her husband’s marital infidelities, used crude banter at campaign events, and of course there was the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape, where he was heard using graphic language to boast of assaulting women.

Now in power, he can’t shake the fact that women have blocked his singular legislative initiative. Among the Senate’s 52 Republicans, five are women.

On healthcare, the pair argued that the various plans offered threatened to adversely impact millions of American families on Medicaid.

They also cast votes against earlier Senate plans that would have left tens of millions more Americans uninsured. — AFP