Marc Short, White House director for legislative affairs, said Trump reminded senators at their lunch Wednesday that he has a pen in his hand and is ready to sign a repeal bill. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo Highlights: White House aides brief press after Trump’s Obamacare lunch The White House has not held a televised briefing since June 29.

Legislative affairs director Marc Short and spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders briefed the press off-camera on Wednesday as the White House sought to revive legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

President Donald Trump convened a group of senators for lunch at the White House to press his case for repeal. Wednesday also marked the first meeting of the Commission on Election Integrity, chaired by Vice President Mike Pence, with the aim of digging up any evidence of voter fraud.


The White House has not held a televised briefing since June 29. Here are highlights from the briefing.

•"Inaction is not an option," Short said of senators' struggle to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Short said Trump reminded senators at their lunch Wednesday that he has a pen in his hand and is ready to sign a repeal bill. There will be a meeting tonight on Capitol Hill for senators who are still not prepared to vote "yes," Short said. The administration will be represented at the meeting.

• The goal is still "repeal and replace," Short said, after the White House on Tuesday gave mixed messages on its expectations for the path forward.

But "if Republicans cannot find consensus" on a replacement option, Short said, Trump would support a straight repeal bill and let lawmakers worry about crafting a new health care plan later.

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• Short compared senators who block the repeal legislation to the "nothing to see here" scene from the movie "The Naked Gun," which has become a meme on social media.

"If you're not willing to move to proceed, you're basically acknowledging that there's nothing wrong, that Obamacare's fine," Short said. "You can't pretend that there's not an explosion behind you."

• Trump is open to hitting the road to rally support for the bill, Short said, though he has not done much public campaigning for the legislation thus far. Some senators are eager for him to do more.

"Several senators raised the notion that the president could be extremely helpful to them in making that case, and I think he was receptive to that," Short said. "There's a lot of things in this bill that we can trumpet, and I think you will see that happen."

Short defended Trump's level of involvement in pushing the bill so far.

"I don't think there's a sense that he hasn't been active," Short said.

• Trump is still considering ending subsidy payments that are crucial to keep insurance markets afloat.

"Here we are propping it up," Short said, adding that Trump is considering his options. "He's concerned about that policy and he continues to evaluate it."

Sanders said later in the briefing that payments would be made this month, and the process would be evaluated after that.

• Trump is entitled to his "opinion" about voter fraud, Sanders said of the president's frequent claims that millions of people voted illegally in the 2016 election.

• "The Russia fever has caught up with the media," Sanders said when asked about Trump's previously unreported conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a dinner at the G-20.

The conversation was "brief," Sanders said, and she declined to get into the specifics of what was discussed. She said there was no precedent for giving readouts to the media on social interactions.

When asked if Trump revealed any classified information to Putin during his conversation, Sanders said she had not discussed it with the president.

