Senate Leader Mitch McConnell was unable this week to gather enough votes to ensure the passing of the Republican healthcare bill, as part of the Republican goal to "repeal and replace Obamacare", otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act. The plan has been widely criticized by Democrats and Republicans alike. According to current estimates, the American Healthcare Act would leave 22 million Americans without without medical insurance, and make steep cuts to Medicaid. While Republican support for the bill is split, Democratic opposition is decidedly solid. Massachussets Senator Ed Markey stated this week that the bill is, "of the rich, for the rich, and by the rich the to ensure that they get a huge tax break while the healthcare for ordinary families in our country is slashed."

Debate over the health care bill was overshadowed however by President Trump's Twitter attacks against "Morning Joe" hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, in which he wrote, "I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don't watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came... to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year's Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!" The tweets garnered bipartisan criticism. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham wrote, "Mr. President, your tweet was beneath the office and represents what is wrong with American politics, not the greatness of America." Scarborough and Brzezinski themselves penned a response denying Trump's account of them in Mar-a-Lago. Brzezinski went on to state, "The President's tweets, whether they're personally aimed at me...[don't] bother me one bit. It does worry me about the country. He appears to have a fragile, impetuous, childlike ego that we've seen over and over again, especially with women. It's like he can't take it." On the same subject, Scarborough declared, "He attacks women because he fears women."

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Amidst the controversy over the President's latest tweet, the Trump administration has quietly begun to close the White House Council on Women and Girls, opened under former president Barack Obama. The Council's responsibility is the monitor the effects of policy changes while maintaining in contact with women's groups. The responsibility of pushing for women's rights has been shifted overwhelmingly onto Ivanka Trump. However, advocacy groups have expressed frustration at the lack of a functional office with which to confer. Betsy Myers, director of the Office of Women's Initiatives and Outreach under former president Bill Clinton, stated that, "that's the problem, there's nobody to reach out to except Ivanka. If you don't have somebody with a full-time job and a team...then you're not going to be able to be able to move the agenda forward on behalf of women." Many women's groups, though disappointed, are unsurprised at the change in the tide. "It was nice having an administration that was sympathetic," said Deborah Holmes, head of communications and engagement for the Women's Funding Network. And yet, "we learned a long time ago that we never assume that we would always be in somebody's favor."