Senator Rand Paul was one of the most vocal Republicans expressing concerns about the House GOP’s healthcare alternative even before it was released this week. As far as he’s concerned, the replacement plan is “Obamacare Lite” and “dead on arrival” in the Senate.

Last night, President Trump got wind of Paul’s comments and tweeted the following:

I feel sure that my friend @RandPaul will come along with the new and great health care program because he knows Obamacare is a disaster!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 8, 2017

Paul said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe today that the White House is going on a “charm offensive” to try and win over skeptical conservatives, but he specifically responded to the president’s tweet in an interview with Politico:

“I don’t feel isolated by this. I actually feel emboldened,” Paul, who clashed at times with Trump during the Republican presidential primary last year, said of his reaction to the president’s attention.

Paul read Trump’s tweet as a signal that the White House is “open to negotiation and that they realize that we have the numbers to stop the Obamacare-lite bill … They are concerned because every conservative I know has been called to the White House” to talk about Obamacare.

Paul is one of a growing number of Republicans voicing concerns that the American Health Care Act is not an adequate replacement to Obamacare.

Speaker Paul Ryan

[image via Christopher Halloran/Shutterstock]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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