Trump: Ryan should remain Speaker even if healthcare vote fails

President Trump said Friday that Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) should remain Speaker even if the afternoon vote on the GOP healthcare plan fails. 

“Yes,” he said when asked whether Ryan should keep his job.

{mosads}The president also dismissed the notion that he regrets starting off his legislative agenda with a bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare, telling a reporter does not believe he rushed into it. 

Asked about the bill, which faces opposition from conservative and moderate lawmakers, Trump said, “We’ll have to see what happens.”

Trump is seeking to tamp down a blame game that has broken out as Republican leaders struggle to cobble together enough votes to pass the American Health Care Act. 

The New York Times reported Thursday night that Trump has told multiple people close to him that he “regrets” going along with Ryan’s plan to push forward on a healthcare overhaul before tax reform. 

One Trump ally told The Hill that the sequencing was “a blunder” and that White House chief of staff Reince Priebus “put way too much trust in Ryan.”

Updated at 11:01 a.m.