Trump slams Democrats' resistance movement: 'It's a terrible theme in terms of getting elected'
"It's a terrible theme in terms of getting elected," Trump tells Fox News.
— -- President Donald Trump is taking issue with his predecessor's recent comments criticizing the newly-unveiled Senate Republican healthcare draft bill.
Former President Barack Obama wrote in a Facebook post Thursday, "Simply put, if there's a chance you might get sick, get old, or start a family -– this bill will do you harm. And small tweaks over the course of the next couple weeks, under the guise of making these bills easier to stomach, cannot change the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation."
In an interview with Fox News' Pete Hegseth, airing Sunday on "Fox & Friends Weekend," Hegseth asks the president, "What do you say to the former president?"
The commander in chief responds, "Well, he used my term, 'mean.' That was my term because I want to see -- and I speak from the heart -- a bill with heart."
Trump continues, "Health care is a very complicated subject from the standpoint that you move it this way, and this group doesn't like it. You move it a little bit over ... you have a very narrow path. Honestly, nobody can be totally happy. Even without the votes, forget about the votes. This has nothing to do with votes. This has to do with picking a plan that everybody's going to like. I'd like to say love, but like."
Trump has endorsed the Senate version of the bill, which isn't as drastic as the House version in some areas.
Trump also slammed the Democrats' Trump resistance movement, telling Hegseth, "I think it's a terrible theme in terms of getting elected. And more importantly, I think it's a terrible theme for the people of this country. Resist, obstruction. That's not what they want."
Also in the interview, President Trump criticizes Obama for allegedly doing "nothing" about reports that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign.
"I just heard today for the first time that Obama knew about Russia a long time before the election, and he did nothing about it -- but npobody wants to talk about that," Trump says. "The CIA gave him information on Russia a long time before the election. And I hardly see it, it's an amazing thing. The question for me is, if he had the information, why didn't he do something about it? You don't read that. It's quite sad."
Trump's comments echo a tweet he wrote Friday: "Just out: The Obama Administration knew far in advance of November 8th about election meddling by Russia. Did nothing about it. WHY?" he tweeted.
Hegseth -- a U.S. Army veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, who holds two Bronze Stars and a Combat Infantryman’s Badge for his time there -- asked Trump about signing on Friday the Department of Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act of 2017.
"[Veterans have] gone through so much, and I've always felt they were never appreciated the way they should be appreciated," he said. "But you know who appreciates? The voters, and I'm not just talking about them as block, which is a big block. But I'm talking about the voters outside of the veterans."