Chuck Schumer says Democrats will work with Trump on health care - on one condition

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) blasted Trump's incompetence over the GOP health care bill's implosion, but said that Democrats were willing to work with him to fix Obamacare - as long as repeal was off the table.

"There were two problems," he explained to Wolf Blitzer on CNN Friday, "two reasons this failed, that President Trump, once is incompetence."

"I've never seen such incompetence," he added. "They put together a bill that doesn't have the support of so many of their own party. Nobody, hardly anyone on the outside opposed it, AARP, uh supported it, AARP against it, AMA against, hospitals against it, nurses against it. And second, you can't, and this is a lesson for them for the future - you cannot govern from the hard right. The only people who really benefited were the very very wealthy."

Senator Chuck Schumer: One reason bill failed, “I've never seen such incompetence” https://t.co/RpsHUjHkuGhttps://t.co/cqzUFS8sol

— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom)

March 24, 2017

Schumer responded to Trump accusing the Democrats of not wanting to work with Republicans on health care in his address from the White House Friday after the bill failed.

"Well it's a tall tale, another one by President Trump," Schumer said. "They never reached out to us, they never talked to us, they never said how can we work together to make it better. The failure is of course completely among the Republicans, President Trump and the Congress. They weren't even trying to get Democrats involved."

"And now, it's about time for the president to lead," he charged, "not to name call, not to blame, but to lead. To simply say people are going to suffer and someone's to blame, that makes no sense at all. If you're a real president, you care about people's suffering and we're ready to work with the president."

"Take repeal off the table," he reiterated. "Let him and Speaker Ryan, Mitch McConnell say 'we're not repealing' and we'll work with them on improving Obamacare. But in the meantime for the president to do things to make Obamacare worse and have millions people suffer, to make sure it doesn't work when CBO says it does work, that's not being president.

Sen. Chuck Schumer on Republicans: "They never reached out to us, they never talked to us" https://t.co/UYpqI3w42L https://t.co/gvrJxT6JsC

— CNN (@CNN) March 24, 2017

Schumer reiterated their willingness to work with the president, saying, "If they take repeal off the table, absolutely."

"They tried to repeal it, they failed," he concluded. "If they keep trying to repeal it, we won't be able to do anything. So of course, we'll come to them. And it's about time for the president to act like a president. Not to make people suffer, make things worse by making Obamacare worse, it's a good bill now, he can try to make it better, that's fine. But this idea, 'ha ha ha, people will suffer' that is not what a president's supposed to be. We're not gloating that they failed. We're sad that they won't work with us to improve Obamacare."

Sen. Schumer: If they take ‘repeal’ off the table, we will work with GOP on unified health bill https://t.co/Rlqf2v2DTp

— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) March 24, 2017

The "American Health Care Act" legislation from the Republicans was postponed after objections from the Freedom Caucus on Thursday seemed to tank its chances of being passed. After making changes to accommodate those on the right, the bill lost votes from moderate Republicans, precipitating it being pulled altogether Friday.