Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.) said President Donald Trump's plan to "let Obamacare fail" was "evil" and "sinister" during an interview Tuesday night on CNN.
After Senate Republicans lost the votes necessary to pass the Better Care Reconciliation Act to repeal and replace Obamacare, Trump spoke to reporters Tuesday at the White House. He said his idea was to let the law's struggling exchanges collapse and then deal with a replacement later.
"We're not going to own it," Trump said at the White House. "I'm not going to own it. I can tell you the Republicans are not going to own it. We'll let Obamacare fail and then the Democrats are going to come to us."
"That's not just cynical. It's actually sinister," Booker told CNN's Don Lemon.
Booker said Trump had promised he alone could fix the country's health care system, but instead had "outsourced" the process to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.). He also hit him for not reaching out to Democrats.
"A great deal-maker failed to make a deal," Booker said. "Now he's just saying I'm going to imperil 30 million Americans? ... Americans will get hurt badly, and you''ll see very devastating things happen. That's not just a cynical way that's violating his promises. That's sinister and it's evil to plot against Americans like that."