Trump calls out McConnell over health care defeat

Two days after U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell publicly bemoaned President Donald Trump's "excessive expectations," on passing a new health care law, Trump countered Wednesday, calling out the senator for not delivering on their party's signature promise.

In a tweet, Trump questioned why Republicans haven't been able to repeal and replace Obamacare -- an effort that began soon after the law was passed in 2010 -- despite now controlling Congress and the executive branch.

At a Rotary Club gathering in Kentucky on Monday, McConnell said Trump's pressure to move quickly on the party's agenda was behind the public's perception that Republicans haven't accomplished much despite their control of two government branches.

“Part of the reason I think that the story line is that we haven’t done much is because, in part, the president and others have set these early timelines about things need to be done by a certain point,” said McConnell

McConnell also suggested that Trump's lack of government experience explained his high hopes.

“Our new president, of course, has not been in this line of work before. And I think he had excessive expectations about how quickly things happen in the democratic process,” said McConnell. “So part of the reason I think people feel we’re under-performing is because too many artificial deadlines -- unrelated to the reality of the complexity of legislating -- may not have been fully understood.”

The months-long congressional Republican health care reform effort was dealt a serious setback on July 27 when legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act was defeated by a single vote in the GOP-controlled Senate. Trump has since called for Republicans to continue their attempts, though any work on the matter would have to wait until Congress returns from its August recess.

(ABC)