White House: Trump wants GOP ObamaCare repeal to ‘have heart’

White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday doubled down on President Trump’s reported remarks that the House GOP’s healthcare bill lacks “heart.”

Asked during a press briefing to confirm the remarks and explain what Trump wants to see in the final bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare, Spicer said Trump “clearly wants a bill that has heart in it.”

“This is an area that the president believes passionately about,” Spicer told reporters.

{mosads}When pressed, Spicer refused to say which parts of the House bill Trump wants to improve but said that the White House was involved in negotiations with the Senate to ensure that Trump’s goals are achieved.

“This is an ongoing discussion with Senate leaders,” Spicer said. “I’m not going to get into the private discussions that have occurred, but I will just say that the more that we can do to produce a bill, as it works its way through the process, that achieves the president’s goals, that’s something we can all agree on.”

Last week, Trump reportedly told a group of Republican senators that the House’s healthcare bill was “mean, mean, mean” and that the Senate bill needed to be more “kind.”

“I really appreciate what you’re doing to come out with a bill that’s going to be a phenomenal bill to the people of our country: generous, kind, with heart. That’s what I’m saying,” Trump said during the public segment of the meeting.

During a ceremony for the House’s bill in the Rose Garden the day after it passed, Trump called the House bill “a great plan.”