“I think it's time for our folks to come together, and I also think it's time to potentially get a few moderate Democrats on board as well,” Priebus said. | Getty Priebus: Trump will seek Democratic support on health care

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said Sunday that President Donald Trump’s administration would seek support from moderate Democrats going forward in the ongoing efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

“I think it's time for our folks to come together, and I also think it's time to potentially get a few moderate Democrats on board as well,” Priebus told anchor Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday."


While continuing to fault congressional Democrats for taking down the House GOP health care bill Friday, Priebus also stressed that Republicans — who own a 237-193 edge in the House (with five vacancies) — needed to start taking command in Congress.

“We had no Democrat support. We had no votes from the Democrats. They weren't going to give us a single vote,” Priebus said. “But … at the end of the day, I believe that it's time for the party to start governing. I think that's important.”

Asked whether Trump was set on letting the health care law “implode,” as he alluded to Friday, or whether he would seek to compromise and seek to augment the existing law, Priebus said Trump was keeping his options open.

“I don't think the president is closing the door on anything,” Priebus said.

Priebus also expressed some degree of frustration with members of the House who expressed their opposition to the bill, implying that their actions had not remained “loyal” to the president.

“The fact," he said, "that some of these members took that and decided not to move forward with it I think is a real shame and I think the president is disappointed in the number of people that he thought were loyal to him that work."