House floor. For republicans, it was a sevenyear promise. For trump, it put his reputation as a master deal maker on the line. Moments ago the president in the oval office defending his defeat. I never said i guess im here, what, 64 days . I never said repeal and replace obamacare. You heard my speeches. I never said repeal and replace within 64 days. I have a long time. Of course the president did promise to repeal and replace not on day 64, on his first day, actually. We will also repeal and replace the total disaster known as obamacare. Were going to stop it day one. The other man whose reputation is on the line tonight, House Speaker paul ryan. I will not sugar coat this. This is a disappointing day for us. Doing big things is hard. Obamacare is a the law of the land and will remain the law of the land. Sara murray is out front at the white house. The president has always called himself the ultimate deal maker. He couldnt get this one done. What is the white house saying tonight . Reporter i think the white house is trying to shift a lilt bit of the blame here. Youre absolutely right, he campaigned on this, he insisted that he was the man who could fwetd things done in washington that other people could not. And we know that behind the scenes there was a lot of frustration among the president and his top aides about being unable to coax republicans into agreeing to this deal, but we saw a very disciplined president today not blaming members of his own party. Listen to what he said. I think the losers are nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer because now they own obamacare, they own it, 100 own it, and this is not a Republican Health care. This is not anything but a Democrat Health care. Reporter the reality is, and this was a political defeat for this white house in a week where they certainly needed a win. Perhaps the worst week of his presidency so far. But if you trust Senior Administration officials tonight, they say hes not all that perturbed by it. In fact, hes sort of happy to have health care behind him ready to move on to other things. How far is it behind him . Sara, thank you so much. What went so wrong for the Republican Party today . Sunlen serfaty is out front on capitol hill. Reporter President Trump and House Republican leaders tonight are grappling with a staggering health care defeat. The gops longpromised plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care act pulled from the house floor after leaders determined the proposal lacked enough support to pass. We came close today but we fell short. Doing big things is hard. Reporter it was a stunning turn of events coming less than 24 hours after the president issued an ultimatum to house republic republicans to move forward with the vote or he was ready to move on to other items on his agenda. I think we have to let obamacare go its way for a little while. See how things go. Its imploding and soon will explode. And its not going to be pretty. Reporter the decision to call off the vote came after House Speaker paul ryan left the capitol to visit the white house and deliver message in person to the president that republicans did not have the votes to pass the plan. Sources tell cnn a key part of that closeddoor conversation dealt with whether the president would take any responsibility for the disdecision to scrap the vote. As that meeting played out behind the scenes, the White House Press secretary was publicly making the case to reporters that the president had done all he could to deliver a legislative victory. Theres no question in my mind, at least, that the president and the team here have left everything on the field. Reporter part of the administrations lastminute push included dispatching mike pence. One of the worst bills ive ever seen. Reporter even though the mood from the white house soundedless optimistic than recent days, spicer refused to throw in the towel. Off president thats going to sign the bill if you pass it, and now is that time. Reporter while the president refused to hint at what his next step would be if the vote didnt succeed. Did you rush it, do you think . Well see what happens. Reporter what ultimately happened is rank and file members of the president s own party never fully got on board. With leaders losing votes from more moderate members with changes to the proposal aimed at swaying conservatives. That included a late revision to eliminate the Ten Essential Health benefits required to be part of insurance plans under obamacare. Suppose that was added to move in the direction of the Freedom Caucus. Im in what is known as the tuesday group, and i do not think that that is a good amendment. Reporter tonight speaker ryan and President Trump both making it Crystal Clear they are not going to try again on repealing obamacare anytime soon. They are now saying that ear going to move on to other items on their legislative agenda. First up, very well could be tax reform. But, kate, that is as complicated as what they just attempted and failed at. Absolutely. Amazing how things changed today. Thank you so much, sunlen. The panel with me tonight, will be with me unless they leave me, for the entire hour. Mark preston is here. Caitlyn huey burns. Niamalika henderson is cnns senior political reporter. Jeffrey lord is here. Reagan white house political director. Doug hyde. And keith boykin was a white house aide in the Clinton White house. All right. A lot as changed since we spoke last. Mark, this is embarrassing to say the least for the Republican Party. For this president. How pad is this . Very bad. Look, its very bad because they had seven years to try to craft something together. Its very bad because they tried to legislate off a Campaign Slogan of repeal and replace instead of saying were going to go in and fix and make better, which literally they probably could have done. And its bad really Going Forward because every bit of legislation now is going to be viewed at least in the near term through Donald Trumps inability to cut a deal to get things done. What the president said tonight when he faced cameras, faced reporters, he says basically this wasnt on me, this is all democrats. Can he really say can you say with a straight face tonight, jeffrey lord, this is the democrats fault as the president is trying to tonight . Well, obamacare is their fault. But no, no. He wants to say this, where they are today, is democrats are at fault. Let me partially agree with my friend mark over there. You should partially answer my question. I am. This is the republicans fault. This is speaker ryans fault. I like speaker ryan. But let me give you two speakers, Newt Gingrich and nancy pelosi, the contract for america with Newt Gingrich and obamacare, which should be called pelosi care. They were speakers of the house. They got their programs through. They got it done. Speaker ryan, great guy, just didnt get this done. Mark is correct. They had seven years to do this. They should have had this all road tested. So its not the president s fault at all. Well, i mean, any president would have walked into this for the first time, but no, its the legislative bodys fault, absolutely. Theyre the ones in charge of the house. Not the president. Keith . President trump promised you wouldnt laugh. Well, sorry. He lied. President trump says this is on the biggest losers tonight are nancy pelosi and Chuck Schumer. This is on obamacare. This is on democrats. Your fault. President obama deserves an apology from President Trump because he has been criticized for being too professor sor yal, couldnt make a deal. He cut a deal to make obamacare happen, something that this guy couldnt do. The buck stops in the oval office, not somewhere else. He refuses to take responsibility. Frankly, the reason why hes responsible is because he is engaged, hes demonstrated a careless, casual, reckless indifference to the mechanics of governing. He hasnt even tried to learn how to do his job. Hes so busy out campaigning in kentucky and tennessee, he hasnt bothered to do the substantive work to be the president of the united states. To keiths president , the president himself acknowledged its been an interesting experience for him. He has learned a lot, a lot about the arcane rules of legislating was one thing he said. But also i cant get off of this. This is a president who said he is the ultimate deal maker. He spent years criticizing president obama for not being able to close a deal. Found this doozy from 2013 when the Government Shutdown stuff was all happens. Listen to what then just donald trump had to say. You have to get everybody in a room. You have to be a leader. The president has to lead. Hes got to get mr. Boehner and everybody else in a room and they have to make a deal and you have to be nice and be angry and be wild and cajole and do all sorts of things. But you have to get a deal. And unfortunately hes never been a deal maker. Why does it seem that he did not take his own advice . He didnt. Thats why it seems like he didnt. There werent those moments, certainly initially in getting people together, getting a coalition together, getting sort of outside Interest Groups together, the doctors groups, aarp, club for growth, all of those groups let alone the House Freedom caucus or bringing ryan in in the beginning days and try and figure out what this deal would look like. They wanted this done quickly and in some ways that was ryans design. Spicer today said over and over that this president left everything out on the field. That must have been a really small field because he didnt really do much. Right . He went out a couple times to kentucky even in those speeches it wasnt eve an full speech about health care. There was a line in there or two about health care, but he never was really all in on this, didnt take obamas sort of advice in terms of how he approached it, eightmonth period, lots of speech, lots of long interviews about health care and making the sale. So if President Trump could have done more, doug, in your opinion the house of representatives how many times that they worked to repeal and replace or repeal obamacare. How much blame does paul ryan deserve . Well, i think the lions share goes to two different spots, one the president , because he is the only new dynamic in this. We had republicans who were passing bill, sometimes not passing bills. We were pushing for a senate shgt finally got a senate. That wasnt enough. We needed a president. Weve got a president whos the great negotiator. Thats part of it. The other is we talk about seven years of trying to replace this. President its not just about obamacare but how we struggled to reopen the government, had to pull the farm bill from the floor. Time and time again republicans couldnt pass legislation, we couldnt govern ourselves and having observed these creatures in their native habitat, its tough to get people who dont want to follow you, tough to lead them and thats why republicans are stuck where they are and will be stuck tomorrow and there arent real answers for where we go next at this point. Thats whats troubling is we have to answer the question of whether or not we can govern ourselves and we dont know that yet. They also need to answer to constituents. I truly do wonder, and paul ryan didnt have an answer when dan asked him about today, what do lawmakers say when they go back to their districts tonight . Exactly. To dougs point, what this did today was real hi embolden the reluctant crew, right, and emboldened the house conservatives, that they got a victory tonight. They have no incentive now. Any case this helps republicans . For them, but not for the larger party the party at large that wants to get things done. These are republicans who are in very safe districts. Threats of primary challenges, of losing their seats really rang hollow among a lot of these republicans who, yes, trump won their districts but they outperformed trump in many cases, far outperformed any rivals that they had in those races. So i think this is what people were concerned about was emboldening these types of folks. So when you get to things like tax reform, they can hold their line too. They got a victory. Tax reform is going to be so much easier. Oh, yeah. Next why is the president fuming at hi soninlaw right now . It may have something to do with this picture. Plus, why this picture is taking on new significance at this hour. And the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee abruptly canceled the hearing on russia as democrats accuse him of doing Donald Trumps bidding. vo this is not a video game. This is not a screensaver. This is the destruction of a cancer cell by the bodys own immune system, thanks to medicine that didnt exist until now. And today can save your life. A lot of people have vertical blinds. Well, if a lot of people jumped off a bridge, would you . You hungry . Im okay right im. Im becoming my, uh, mother. Its been hard, but some of the stuff he says is actually pretty helpful. Pumpkin, bundling our home and Auto Insurance is a good deal like buying in bulk thats fun, right . Progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto. Progressive cant protect you from becoming your parents, modern life deserves a and well end up in venice. Oh. Venice. Lets get the check. Nope i got it. You can use it online and whats with this one . And on your phone. Taking care of the check. Its all masterpassed. First impressions. Priceless thank you so where to now . Well were thinking shoe shopping. I was hoping you were going to say shoe shopping. Masterpass, the secure way to pay from your bank dont just buy it, masterpass it. Youre smart. You already knew that. But its also great for finding the perfect used car. Youll see what a fair price is, and you can connect with a truecar certified dealer. Now youre even smarter. This is truecar. Breaking news, a group of House Republicans defying their leaders and donald trump. Phil mattingly is out front on capitol hill. Youve been there all day. Whats happened behind the scenes as republicans were meeting today . Where are they maplacing the blame . Reporter most fingers are pointed at the House Freedom caucus. The Freedom Caucus doesnt apologize at all for what they did in this process. They had specific things they wanted and made clear they were willing to call leaderships bluff and hold out to get those. Im told behind the scenes the recriminations, the anger is strong. Just look on twitter. Adam kinslinger saying the House Freedom caucus singlehandedly saved obamacare. This carries over. Its a concern from advisers on both sides of the debate inside the republican conference. They want to do big agenda items Going Forward. Theyre moving on past obamacare. How do they work this out . Is this a harbinger of things to come . Because the Freedom Caucus feel emboldened . Or do they recognize theyve touched the stove and need to come together and to get things done . We were told by paul ryan that President Trump was not bluffing, they were dope with the repeal and replace and moving on, nobody even responded. It was that jarring of a moment. Well see if they learn from that or if its just kind of what were going to see Going Forward consistently. Phil, thank you. Out front tonight, republican congressman of ohio mike turner. He was planning to vote no on this bill. Congressman, thanks for coming in. Sure. Thanks for having me. Simply put, how do you describe what happened today . You know, i was in conversations with the white house and the Speakers Office including conversations today trying to modify this bill. In the end, as you know, this bill would result in the coverage of many people in my community losing their health care coverage. That was a bridge too far. In addition, with the concession that was made to the Freedom Caucus of removing sennial Health Care Benefits which included as you noma tern ti care and other care that everyone believes was essential, this became a bill i could not support. Heres the thing, congressman. Republicans right now have the keys to the kingdom. You control all of washington. So did the party squander a huge opportunity here today . Well, they dont control everything. It takes 60 votes in the senate to get a bill through. They sure control the house. This bill was going through continue or thingses and pieces were moving through procedural modes to try to get it through ultimately through senate. Because of that, this piece, which was supposed to be part of larger pie, certainly, you know, had continue or tortions that i i could not support. The president and speaker ryan says obamacare is the law of the land. Theyre not bringing this up in the near future. Can you just leave this after campaigning and promising for cycle after cycle and move on to Something Like tax reform now . Thats going to be the decision of the speaker and of the president. Id be surprised. It certainly is a process thats worthy of continuing. Its not this bill. And i think, you know, if they do a postmortem theyll find theres some serious flaws in the bill and perhaps we need to move forward with a bill that can protect the american public, ensure that im not voting to cut Health Care Benefits to my constituents, and a bill that people see real savings and reductions in premiums and quality of care for the future. The message has been prett