One of President Donald Trump's top aides said Tuesday that Trump hopes to build a working relationship with Republicans and Democrats.
"We still believe that tax reform will be better if done on a bipartisan basis," Marc Short, assistant to the president, lead congressional lobbyist and director of the Office of Legislative Affairs, told The Washington Examiner in an interview.
He continued, bringing up the GOP's failure to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act as they pledged to, "and we've also learned that keeping 50-52 Republicans is not something that's reliable. And so despite promises of commitments that they made to voters since 2010, we don't feel like we can assume we can get tax reform done strictly on a partisan basis. So it's wise for us, not just from a policy perspective, but from a vote counting perspective to try to reach out and earn the support of Democrats as well."
Trump made a deal with Democratic leaders last week on the debt ceiling, in a move that surprised many Republicans, even those in the leadership.
"As far as with the relationships with members, and with leadership, I think that the president maintains a strong relationship with Mitch McConnell and with Speaker Ryan right now. And I think that despite some of the news of the last week, I don't know that we think there's anything wrong that he also has good relationships with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.
I think we would argue that the Obama administration in some ways failed to have those relationships across the aisle and it probably hurt them in some of the things that they were trying to do and it probably hurt the country for not getting more done." Short said.
"So I think you'll continue to see the president to not look at it as, 'Hey what do I need to do to stay in the good graces of Mitch McConnell or Paul Ryan.' He's going to look at it and say, 'What's in the best interest of the American people.'"
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